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- Creators: Arizona State University
- Creators: D'Angelo, Barbara J.
- Creators: Carradini, Stephen
- Status: Published
Description
The goal of this research was to contribute to the understanding of how the physical design of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) environments may be improved to enhance nursing communication, and in turn, the quality and safety of patient outcomes. This study was guided by two research questions: (1) What are the major characteristics of nurse communication in a hybrid ICU nurse station design? (2) What are the factors in the built environment that enhance or hinder nurse communication in a hybrid ICU nurse station design? The research design was exploratory and qualitative. Observations were conducted in two ICUs with hybrid nurse station layouts. Participant observation was used to systematically observe and document nurse communication and the physical attributes of the ICU nurse work environment that affect communication. Literature, observations, and information regarding staffing and design about the selected ICUs were analyzed for the generation of concepts and the exploration of significant themes. Results show that nurse interactions with other staff members varied within the different zones of the ICU pod. A biaxial map illustrates four key types of core nurse communication interactions: At ease, On guard, In motion, and On the edge. The quadrants representing barriers to nurse communication are On guard and On the edge, and included interactions with other staff members in the pod. The quadrants representing facilitators to nurse communication are At ease and In motion. The hybrid nurse station layout supported nurse-nurse communication, but not communication interactions with other staff members present on the pod. The results provide a broad understanding of how nurse communication is affected by the environment in which nurses work, and allows for the emergence of design opportunities to enhance nurse communication.
ContributorsNewcomb, Emily Michelle Darling (Author) / Lamb, Gerri (Thesis advisor) / Stein, Morris (Thesis advisor) / Wolf, Peter (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Despite increased attention and funding from companies and governments worldwide over the past several years, cybersecurity incidents (such as data breaches or exploited vulnerabilities) remain frequent, widespread, and severe. Policymakers in the United States have generally addressed these problems discretely, treating them as individual events rather than identifying commonalities between them and forming a more effective broad-scale solution. In other words: the standard approaches to cybersecurity issues at the U.S. federal level do not provide sufficient insight into fundamental system behavior to meaningfully solve these problems. To that end, this dissertation develops a sociotechnical analogy of a classical mechanics technique, a framework named the Socio-Technical Lagrangian (STL). First, existing socio/technical/political cybersecurity systems in the United States are analyzed, and a new taxonomy is created which can be used to identify impacts of cybersecurity events at different scales. This taxonomy was created by analyzing a vetted corpus of key cybersecurity incidents, each of which was noted for its importance by multiple respected sources, with federal-level policy implications in the U.S..
The new taxonomy is leveraged to create STL, an abstraction-level framework. The original Lagrangian process, from the physical sciences, generates a new coordinate system that is customized for a specific complex mechanical system. This method replaces a conventional reference frame –one that is ill-suited for the desired analysis –with one that provides clearer insights into fundamental system behaviors. Similarly, STL replaces conventional cybersecurity analysis with a more salient lens, providing insight into the incentive structures within cybersecurity systems, revealing often hidden conflicts and their effects. The result is not a single solution, but a new framework that allows several questions to be asked and answered more effectively.
Synthesizing the findings from the taxonomy and STL framework, the third contribution involves formulating reasonable and effective recommendations for enhancing the cybersecurity system's state for multiple stakeholder groups. Leveraging the contextually appropriate taxonomy and unique STL framework, these suggestions address the reform of U.S. federal cybersecurity policy, drawing insights from various governmental sources, case law, and discussions with policy experts, culminating in analysis and recommendations around the 2023 White House Cybersecurity Strategy.
ContributorsWinterton, Jamie (Author) / Maynard, Andrew (Thesis advisor) / Bowman, Diana (Committee member) / Michael, Katina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
ABSTRACT
Despite a recognized need for corporations to take greater social responsibility, such responsibility is often lacking in the decisions of corporate America. This lack of attention to social responsibility has numerous implications, not least for the US workforce. Additionally, the workforce itself has a potential role to play in implementing social responsibility. Workers are partly responsible for actions causing negative effects; however, organizations tend to avoid addressing the negative effects as a form of organized irresponsibility. This dissertation examines decisions and actions related to the worker, their work roles, and within their organization. It aims to understand to what extent workers can function as change agents in aligning their organizations with social responsibility as it relates to organizational missions. The methodological approach used to gather data for this dissertation is Socio-Technical Integration Research (STIR), and the framework used to analyze the data is Midstream Modulation. The dissertation advances the STIR methodology in several respects as a result of studying technology startups with a focus towards organizational effects. These advances include measuring how modulations within individual workers’ decisions have outcomes at the organizational level or across multiple departments. Examples of such “organizational modulations” can be seen in two of the three studies at the core of this dissertation. Additionally, I demonstrate that multiple reflexive modulations can be involved in modulation sequences and that modulation sequences can be nested in relation to one another.
Furthermore, I present the Collaborative Change Agent Model, which may possibly be utilized to further discuss decisions and embed concepts such as social responsibility and Responsible Innovation in an individual worker’s decision-making process.
ContributorsZaveri, Shivam Rajeshbhai (Author) / Fisher, Erik (Thesis advisor) / Nadesan, Majia (Committee member) / Maynard, Andrew (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
This study demonstrates how knowing the digital literacy of those they serve helps information communications technology (ICT) leaders adjust their perspective-taking. Using a pre-and post-survey design assessing ICT leaders on changes in their thinking around key responsibility areas: support during new software adoption, troubleshooting an issue and preparing for a system upgrade. The study used a self and other-rated paired survey model using Computer Attitude Scale and Computer Self-Efficacy instruments to measure ICT leaders and those they serve. 31 ICT leaders at a west coast university participated in this study, and 85 non-ICT workers whom the ICT leaders serve. 31 ICT leaders at a west coast university participated in this study, along with 85 non-ICT workers who the ICT leaders serve. This study indicates that ICT leaders did indeed view the laypeople's digital literacy differently than the laypeople did. And that by showing ICT leaders the differences, they adjusted their support expectations according to the laypeople's self-ratings.
ContributorsNoyes-Williams, Christine Victoria (Author) / Trinh, Mai (Thesis advisor) / Akpan-Obang, Patience (Committee member) / Hofer, Erik (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
During the last 25 years, the academic research environment has become increasingly competitive, with those seeking grants contending for over $83.7 billion, available from primarily six federal agencies. Notably, this increased competition occurred at the same time states have cut support for public universities. To deal with decreases in state support, university leaders and administrators have adopted “new managerialist” approaches that capitalized on three elements obliging early-career engineering faculty members to ‘win’ more federal funding. These three components include (a) leveraging the probationary period during promotion and tenure to stimulate grant production, (b) seeking revenue beyond tuition and operations to support the institution, and (c) augmenting faculty resources by including professional grant writers/support personnel who collaborate with early-career faculty members to mitigate challenges of increased competition for grants by providing domain and implicit knowledge to aid the engineers in grant development. The promotion and tenure process has become particularly challenging for early-career engineers because of the highly competitive federal research landscape.This mixed-methods action research (MMAR) study was conducted to examine the effects of an intervention designed to provide on-demand, online grant writing professional development using a set of five modules. The modules focused on providing information about five constructs related to grant development or grant writing, including requirements, processes, skills, attitudes, and self-efficacy. For three of the five modules, participants demonstrated modest or moderate increases in quantitative scores for the constructs based on survey data. During semi-structured interviews, early-career engineering faculty members revealed candid thoughts about the modules, grant writing, and the “need” to obtain grants as part of their professional lives. Four themes emerged from the qualitative data, including Knowledge, Online Learning, Grant Writing Process, and Winning the Next Grant. The discussion focused on connections between the quantitative and qualitative data, explaining the findings based on the theoretical frameworks, limitations, implications for practice and research, and included a summary.
ContributorsKessel, Monica L. (Author) / Buss, Ray R (Thesis advisor) / Mertler, Craig A (Committee member) / Ban, Heng (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Institutions of higher education pride themselves on their commitments to access, inclusion, and care. However, when motivated by neoliberal goals of productivity, such initiatives may confuse inclusion with normative assimilation by attempting to align all individuals with an ableist status quo. In other words, neutral documents, discourses, and design practices may contribute to the rhetorical and material circulation of systemic ableism by encouraging compulsory alignment with able standards and norms. To examine how the systemic force of neoliberal ableism may move across higher educational spaces, this dissertation engages understandings of rhetoric as complexly circulating across trans-situational, everyday sites in universities. Further, I show that neoliberalism relies on the rhetorical circulation and normalization of ableist rhetorics across seemingly neutral university documents, discourses and design practices like those aimed to promote access, inclusion, and care. This dissertation thus follows the social justice call in technical and professional communication to interrogate participation in documentation, design, and discursive practices that may contribute to larger systems of oppression. Specifically, I apply a mixed-methods, qualitative approach of corpus linguistic analysis, semi-structured interviews grounded in user-experience design, and thematic, concept, and in vivo coding to examine and disrupt the circulation of ableist rhetoric across composition program mission statements, self-care documents, and digital classroom interfaces. Drawing from technical and professional communication, rhetoric and composition, disability studies, rhetorics of health and medicine, social justice, and disability justice scholarship, this dissertation explores theoretical frameworks for interrogating ableism’s material-discursive implications and provides guidelines for university stakeholders to engage in more equitable communications. Ultimately, I offer a theory of “cripistemological coalition” that calls for transdisciplinary, coalitional measures that position disability as integral to university inclusion, access, and care.
ContributorsBennett, Kristin (Author) / Daly Goggin, Maureen (Thesis advisor) / Long, Elenore (Committee member) / Hannah, Mark A. (Committee member) / Rose, Shirley K. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Scholarly writing is an essential skill for nurses to communicate new research and evidence. Written communication directly relates to patient safety and quality of care. However, few online RN-BSN programs integrate writing instruction into their curricula. Nurses traditionally learn how to write from instructor feedback and often not until midway into their baccalaureate education. Innovative strategies are needed to help nurses apply critical thinking skills to writing. The authors discuss a collaborative project between nursing faculty and technical communication faculty to develop and implement a writing course that is 1 of the 1st courses the students take in the online RN-BSN program.
ContributorsStevens, Carol J. (Author) / D'Angelo, Barbara J. (Author) / Rennell, Nathalie (Author) / Muzyka, Diann (Author) / Pannabecker, Virginia (Author) / Maid, Barry M. (Author)
Created2014-01
Description
Since the early 2000s the Rubik’s Cube has seen growing usage at speedsolving competitions and as an effective tool to teach Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) topics at hundreds of schools and universities across the world. Recently, cube manufacturers have begun embedding sensors to enable digital face tracking. The live feedback from these so called “smartcubes” enables a new wave of immersive solution tutorials and interactive educational games using the cube as a controller. Existing smartcube software has several limitations. Manufacturers’ applications support only a narrow set of puzzle form factors and application platforms, fragmenting the ecosystem. Most apps require an active internet connection for key features, limiting where users can practice with a smartcube. Finally, existing applications focus on a single 3x3x3connection, losing opportunities afforded by new form factors. This research demonstrates an open-source smartcube application which mitigates these limitations. Particular attention is given to creating an Application Programming Interface (API) for smartcube communication and building representative solve analysis tools. These innovations have included successful negotiations to re-license existing open-source Rubik’sCube software projects to support deployment on multiple platforms, particularly iOS. The resulting application supports smartcubes from three manufacturers, runs on two platforms (Android and iOS), functions entirely offline after an initial download of remote assets, demonstrates concurrent connections with up to six smartcubes, and supports all current and anticipated smartcube form factors. These foundational elements can accelerate future efforts to build smartcube applications, including automated performance feedback systems and personalized gamification of learning experiences. Such advances will hopefully enhance the Rubik’s Cube’s value both as a competitive toy and as a pedagogical tool in educational institutions worldwide.
ContributorsHale, Joseph (Author) / Bansal, Ajay (Thesis advisor) / Heinrichs, Robert (Committee member) / Gary, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Contracting is an integral component of both government (i.e., public) and private business. As part of the contracting process, contracting companies must submit proposals to federal agencies or private businesses; individuals who write proposals on behalf of contracting companies are known as proposal writers. Although proposal writers are central to the proposal writing process, they are only marginally represented in available literature on the contracting and proposal writing processes. Additionally, available literature is disproportionately influenced by industry and trade sources, versus academic sources, and completed by industry authorities. As a result, key findings from such reports may not reflect the feedback gathered as part of this research. This research utilized a 25-question survey with both multiple choice and free answer questions to gauge the most and least effective components of the proposal writing process. Communication and collaboration—internally within the proposal team or within the company, and externally between the company and customers, clients, etc.— were cited as both the most and least effective components of the process. Notably, however, communication and collaboration were not the most frequently encountered issues, as only 23.5% of proposal writers reported communication as a common issues. Instead, supporting resources (46.9%), time/ schedule (49.2%), and direction. instructions (44.9%) were reported as the most common issues that proposal writers encountered, although one in four participants noted that issues were not consistent across proposals.
ContributorsRast, Mickella (Author) / Mara, Andrew (Thesis advisor) / Stambler, Mollie (Committee member) / Madson, Michael (Committee member) / Lambrecht, Kathryn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Educational videos are a large part of the YouTube community, and an emerging niche of these videos is educational videos created by professionals in the field. Creating content on their profession establishes them as experts and trustworthy sources of information that audiences can turn to while researching topics relating to the field. This study includes eighteen videos from three doctors creating medical-educational content posted to YouTube. The purpose of this study was to determine if these content creators use best practices for educational videos and the common themes these videos share. The best practices were gathered from previous research conducted on educational videos. These practices are viewability, timing, accessibility, reliability, and confidence. Commonalities noted across channels were then coded to find common themes within the niche. These themes do not need to be in every video, but they should be present on two channels. These themes include formatting videos and thumbnails, styles of videos, and their use of humor and entertaining additional content. These videos also break down the negative perceptions of authority that are often attached to doctors by humanizing the doctors to the audience. Combining these best practices and the use of the found common themes strengthen the videos to create engaging and educational content.
ContributorsTaylor, Darby Lyn (Author) / Mara, Andrew (Thesis advisor) / Carradini, Stephen (Committee member) / Madson, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022