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- All Subjects: Nursing
- All Subjects: Prelicensure
- Creators: McClain, Darya
- Status: Published
Minority mental health patients face many health inequities and inequalities that may stem from implicit bias and a lack of cultural awareness from their healthcare providers. I analyzed the current literature evaluating implicit bias among healthcare providers and culturally specific life traumas that Latinos and African Americans face that can impact their mental health. Additionally, I researched a current mental health assessments tool, the Child and Adolescent Trauma Survey (CATS), and evaluated it for the use on Latino and African American patients. Face-to-face interviews with two healthcare providers were also used to analyze the CATS for its’ applicability to Latino and African American patients. Results showed that these assessments were not sufficient in capturing culturally specific life traumas of minority patients. Based on the literature review and analysis of the interviews with healthcare providers, a novel assessment tool, the Culturally Traumatic Events Questionnaire (CTEQ), was created to address the gaps that currently make up other mental health assessment tools used on minority patients.
A non-experimental pre-posttest self-report survey design was used to assess the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of an online breastfeeding educational intervention for healthcare providers. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) provided the framework for exploring the participants’ psychological and behavioral outcomes. The research questions were: (1) What is the feasibility of an online breastfeeding course for healthcare providers? (2) What are healthcare providers’ psychological and behavioral changes occurring after completion of an online course? (3) How do the post-intervention psychological and behavioral outcomes of the online format compare with those of the previous format (hybrid) of this breastfeeding course?
Although participants’ favorably assessed the feasibility (i.e., acceptability) of the 45-hour course, several factors contributed to participants’ satisfaction level: Previous online learning experience, connectedness with others, and the degree of structural support. Significant positive changes occurring in participants were increases in their knowledge and beliefs about breastfeeding; attitudes toward formula feeding; perceived behavioral control; perceptions about being able to perform breastfeeding supportive behaviors; and intentions to perform actions that are consistent with evidence-based breastfeeding supportive behaviors. Significant changes in the beliefs about formula feeding were not in the expected direction raising conceptual and pedagogical issues. Participants had negative perceptions about being able to implement what they learned in their workplaces or to affect policy. Findings support the use of online breastfeeding education programs for healthcare providers; changes at both individual and institutional levels are necessary to change provider practices.
Adolescence is a period marked by significant physical, developmental, cognitive, and social changes, all of which contribute to health concerns for teens. A steady rise in life expectancy over the past two centuries is potentially diminishing due to the increase in prevalence, severity, and consequences of obesity in children and adolescents related to unhealthy lifestyle behaviors. Health behaviors are often established during childhood and adolescence that continue into adulthood. The development and integration of healthy lifestyle behaviors are vital through adolescence. Self-determination theory (SDT) offers a theoretical framework for attempting to understand individual differences in motivation and behavior. Recent studies have primarily focused on how adolescents make choices related to eating behaviors, physical activity, and self-care habits, and how the resultant behaviors are measured. Participants in this study were 63 healthy adolescents enrolled in 9th grade health class. All participants provided baseline data at Time 1 and again following the five-week pretest posttest intervention study at Time 2. This study examined the utility of SDT in the development of the Adolescent Intrinsic Motivation, a healthy lifestyle behavior intervention, using the tenets of SDT to explain healthy lifestyle motivational beliefs in adolescents, along with healthy lifestyle behaviors and knowledge. The AIM intervention study introduced basic health recommendations to adolescents in an autonomy-supportive environment, which has been shown to encourage the adolescent to make healthy behavior choices based on their own interest and enjoyment. Preliminary effects of the study indicated that participants receiving the AIM intervention demonstrated significant differences in motivational beliefs, healthy lifestyle knowledge, as well as healthy lifestyle behaviors from Time 1 (baseline) to Time 2 (post-intervention). Results of this study provide support for the use of SDT to address the competence, relatedness, and autonomy of adolescents in the development of health education material. Testing this intervention in a larger, random sampling of schools within the state, or even in more than one state, with a three- or six-month follow-up would be useful in determining the longer-term effects of the intervention.