Unraveling Job Disengagement: Exploring Causes and Solutions

Unraveling Job Disengagement: Exploring Causes and Solutions Melissa Meade, Madison Caudill, and Dr. Jon McChesney, Mentor Department of Recreation and Park Administration, Eastern Kentucky University Job disengagement poses a significant challenge within organizational settings. Employees exhibit emotional detachment and diminished commitment to their job responsibilities. Addressing job disengagement is imperative for fostering a positive workplace culture and strengthening organizational performance. This detachment transcends dissatisfaction, penetrating morale, productivity, and employee retention (Burnett, 2023). Root causes of disengagement include ineffective leadership, limited growth prospects, high-stress work environments, and exclusionary organizational cultures. This research examines the effects of recreation on employee engagement. Recreation emerges as a promising solution to enhance employee engagement, offering avenues to add fun and replenish energy throughout the workday. Organizations can enrich job roles by strategically incorporating recreational activities and creating vibrant, fulfilling work environments. Engaging in recreational pursuits outside of work hours also serves to rejuvenate employees, countering the effects of disengagement. Furthermore, integrating enjoyment into workplace activities enhances satisfaction, morale, productivity, and employee retention (Tews, 2013). Embracing job enrichment strategies centered on recreation promotes employee well-being and effectively combats job disengagement. It is essential to recognize the pivotal role of managers and the work environment in implementing these strategies and fostering a supportive organizational culture conducive to employee engagement and fulfillment. This research underscores the importance of recreation to employee engagement here at Eastern Kentucky University with employees indicating that recreation enriches their job significantly

Title TBD

For Scholars Day, our submission will feature a case study poster focusing on a patient encountered in the clinical setting, who experienced postpartum hemorrhage following a cesarean delivery. The purpose of our project is to examine the nursing implications associated with caring for women who encounter this complication during childbirth. Our methodology involves gathering data from the clinical setting, including detailed assessments of patient records, nursing interventions, and outcomes. Furthermore, we plan to compare our clinical findings with existing. By incorporating clinical insights with evidence-based research, our presentation will contribute to a deeper understanding of effective nursing interventions and their impact on patient outcomes. While specific findings and conclusions are not yet available, our discussion will focus on the implications of our study for nursing practice, education, and research. We anticipate that our project will provide valuable insights for those attending the Scholar’s Day event

Workplace Wellness: Exploring Effective Stress Reduction Strategies in the Workplace

With the workplace becoming increasingly fast-paced and competitive, stress is a common issue that affects a significant percentage of workers and costs businesses billions of dollars each year. This research reviews the literature to identify the typical stressors that employees across various professions face. These stressors include but are not limited to the work environment, poor communication, and struggles with work-life balance (Zippa, 2023). The research discusses how these stressors can impact a person\u27s mental and physical health Furthermore, stress can affect the workplace by reducing worker productivity, motivation, and energy levels, which are all associated with burnout (American Psychological Association, 2023). After conducting the literature review on workplace stress, we conducted a short open-response questionnaire to gain insight into how administrative employees and management at Eastern Kentucky University and a corporate office manage their own stress while also working to alleviate the stress of their employees. To maintain a healthy and happy work environment that promotes employee satisfaction and retention, it is imperative to take the steps necessary to mitigate and manage stress effectively. Through the information gained in the literature review about the causes and effects of stress and insight from the questionnaire, this research aims to give insight into how workplace wellness has been and can be achieved

Motivated Mentorships: How Reasons for Undergraduate Research Predict Scholarly Outcomes

Mentorship experiences involve a variety of motives at work simultaneously, and some of those are more effective than others. We hypothesized that personally-autonomous reasons (PARs, “for me”) and relationally-autonomous reasons (RARs, “for us”) for pursuing undergraduate research would be associated with better perceived and scholarly outcomes, whereas controlled reasons (CRs, “I have to”) would be associated with worse outcomes. Fifty-five undergraduate students who were presenting their mentored projects at university-hosted poster events completed surveys indicating their reasons for working on and completing their project, their perceptions of their project and their mentorship, and the number of past and planned future projects, presentations, and continued mentorship experiences. The results indicated that both PARs and RARs were associated with positive outcomes, but PARs were more commonly associated with the project and RARs were more commonly associated with the mentorship. Implications and practical applications for mentorship approaches are discussed

Title: Changes in Mortality Associated with Exposure to Noxious Gases in the Southeast Region of the United States from 1990 to 2020

Introduction: Recent extreme weather events have led to a speculated increase in the use of temporary combustion sources for energy, and a recent event involving the death of U.S. marines sleeping in an air-conditioned car informed the research question and speculation that accidental deaths from noxious gases are increasing in the U.S. due to an increasing trend in exposure to dangerous concentrations of noxious gases. Noxious gases, including carbon monoxide, are recognized as deadly airborne pollutants that impact the respiratory system, blood circulation, and various parts of the body. Objective: To determine the frequency of death from exposure to noxious gases and to identify patterns or trends in mortality in the Southeastern Region of the U.S. for preventing future deaths. Methodology: Noxious gas-related mortality data for the Southeast Region of the U.S. were were obtained from CDC WONDER using the ICD code X47, accidental poisoning by exposure to other gases and vapors. and examined with consideration of months, seasons, day of week, and years. Results: Data from 77 months in 1999-2009 versus 77 months in 2010-2020 revealed average monthly mortality rates increased from 0.33 to 0.38 deaths per million (p\u3c0.0001). Linear regression models show significant increases (p \u3c 0.05) in spring, fall, summer mortality rates (R-square: 35%, 73%, 60%, respectively), but no change in winter rates (R-sq: 1.4%, p = 0.60). Conclusion: The Southeast Region of the U.S. has experienced an increase in the death rate associated with accidental deaths from exposure to noxious gases since 1990 warranting further research

International Adoption and Navigating Health Care

International adoption emerged as a critical need when wars created an impact on every family living in war-torn nations. Orphans of many international countries are institutionalized causing medical concerns in the area of mental health when they become adopted and deinstitutionalized. The research on family dynamics and health literacy along with the mental health disparities are aspects of the United States healthcare system that have not been well developed. To better understand these disparities and close the gap of healthcare for internationally adopted children, health risk appraisals and primary preventions should be investigated. Occupational therapists have the skill and education on occupational disruption and deprivation to provide valuable evidence and reasoning to this investigation. Limiting the health disparities this population faces is only taking action in the quality and access to healthcare. The cost of healthcare for this population is also vital for equity and equality in the United States. Regardless of views in healthcare the cost associated with caring for these children also needs to be addressed by policymakers and healthcare professionals. Increasing funding, research and education around the healthcare of these individuals would improve the overall functioning of the United States healthcare system in regards to cost, quality, and accessibility

Building Bridges: A Mentor Education Program for Occupational Therapy Practitioners

Mentoring in occupational therapy is a crucial role that many practitioners undertake and there is a paucity of mentor education specific to occupational therapists. Authors present an innovative approach to mentor education through a novel three-part online mentor training series. Developed by faculty teaching at Northern Arizona University’s (NAU) entry level Occupational Therapy Doctorate (OTD) program, the series incorporated adult learning theory and the stages of mentoring through the lens of occupational therapy. The training series received positive feedback from participants, who found it straightforward, relevant, and applicable to their work settings. Literature emphasizes the increasing demand for quality mentors in occupational therapy as the field expands and the need for mentor education to support professional development. Although there is limited literature on mentor support in occupational therapy, studies in related fields have highlighted the effectiveness of mentor training programs. Authors suggest that the establishment of a mentoring practice community can bridge OTD program expectations with clinical and community practice realities and build mentor capacities. Overall, this work emphasizes the significance of mentorship and the need for formal mentor education in occupational therapy to foster professional growth and ensure the availability of quality mentors for students and new professionals

Unraveling the Mary Sue: The Conventions of Fan-Fiction Do’s and Don’ts

My poster would be diving into the culture around fan characters made for fanfiction stories which many people consider to be ‘too perfect,’ which many people refer to as Mary Sue characters. The poster would show that there has historically been strigged rules that fandoms operate under to determine if a character made by a fan is a Mary Sue or not, the term more often than not being derogatory in nature. The poster more than anything would be pointing out many inconclusive elements in how fandoms determine what is acceptable for a character. I will show this through different commentary art pieces made over the years about the topic relevant to my discussion as well as questions from popular fan quizzes that were made to determine if someone’s character was a Mary Sue or not. The poster will also briefly show changes over the years of what one expects out of a Mary Sue character, starting with its origin as satire and its development throughout different fan communities. Overall, my poster would be pointing out inconsistencies and interesting aspects of what was considered an acceptable character in fan communities

Learning Outcomes of Hybrid In-Person and At-Home Orthosis Fabrication Instruction for Occupational Therapy Students

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, occupational therapy students at one university received all orthosis fabrication education through an in-person laboratory-based environment supported by clinicians and instructional videos. Due to the pandemic restrictions, orthosis fabrication labs for occupational therapy students were transitioned to a hybrid in-person and at-home supported lab. Presently, there is no research investigating how a hybrid in-person orthosis lab and at-home orthosis fabrication experience impacts the professional practice skill development of occupational therapy students entering the workforce. This research examined the learning outcomes of participation in a hybrid orthosis fabrication experience consisting of one in-person laboratory-based experience and one at-home supported experience (instructional videos, written instructions, without instructor supervision). The research also explored the implications of this hybrid learning experience for future curriculum development. This qualitative study included two components: (1) Interviews with six occupational therapy graduates; (2) 26 student reflections following the hybrid learning experience. The results of this study highlighted three overarching themes: orthosis skill development; transferable skills development; future considerations for implementing a hybrid learning method. A hybrid learning approach provided unique opportunities for the scaling of independence and productive struggle to develop student competence in orthosis fabrication. This research provided insights for occupational therapy curriculum developers to modify educational approaches and effectively support students as they develop into competent occupational therapists

On the structure of repeated-root polycyclic codes over local rings

This paper provides the Generalized Mattson Solomon polynomial for repeated-root polycyclic codes over local rings that gives an explicit decomposition of them in terms of idempotents. It also states some structural properties of repeated-root polycyclic codes over finite fields in terms of matrix product codes. Both approaches provide a description of the -dual code for a given polycyclic code