Capstone Project: The Spirit of Play

Play is a powerful tool for self-care for people of all ages, yet most adults don’t use it enough. To help others cultivate more play in their lives, I created a blog called The Spirit of Play Blog. In the blog I discuss the importance of play and ways it can be incorporated into life. The blog also provided readers with a chance to reflect on play in their own lives and challenged them to play more and in new ways

Promoting Occupational Justice and Holistic Healthcare: Education and Training on Sexuality and Intimacy in Rehabilitation

Indiana University Purdue University IndianapolisLiterature shows most healthcare professionals regardless of clinical context recognize the importance of sexual health but fail to routinely address it with clients. Barriers to addressing sexuality and intimacy include a lack of knowledge, training, comfort, and bias. The capstone student collaborated with a local rehabilitation hospital and found a gap in services that most rehabilitation therapists (occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech therapists) lack the knowledge, comfort, and resources to address sexuality and intimacy regularly. If clients do not receive skilled rehabilitative services to promote participation in sexuality and intimacy, then they may be left with major misinformation and misconceptions that put them at risk for occupational injustice. The capstone student and site worked collaboratively to provide therapists with evidence-based educational seminars and resources in order to increase therapist knowledge and comfort with addressing this topic and promote holistic healthcare. Results of the capstone project indicated statistically significant increases in therapist comfort with screening/assessing, providing interventions, and providing resources specific to sexuality and intimacy concerns. Overall, the capstone project promoted occupational justice for current and future clients through the inclusion of sexuality and intimacy education and practices within the rehabilitation department.Occupational Therap

The Effects of Postpartum Depression on Children\u27s Social Development

The increased incidence of postpartum depression has had significant effects on children’s social development. The purpose of this systematic review is to bring attention to the growing problem in such a vulnerable population. In addition, it was designed to shed light on the lack of research in this area of healthcare. The methods used to conduct the study include various peer reviewed, scholarly and evidenced based articles from databases such as Academic Search Complete, PsycNet, and Pubmed. Each article has been critically evaluated based on the following guidelines: a population group of children under the age of four, specifically maternal postpartum depression rather than paternal, and studies focused on childhood social development. The general consensus of the twenty articles conclude that maternal postpartum depression disrupts the social development of children. Specifically, decreased levels of attachment have been a common trend along with a developmental delay of communication. Based on the evidence collected during the systematic review future evidence-based practice should involve more rigorous screening of the mother child dyad in relation to promotion of mental health. How are children internationally, from birth to four years old, impacted by postpartum depression in relation to social development? Keywords: postpartum depression, development, social development, cognitive development, pediatrics, mental health, infan

An Exploratory Survey of Incorporation of Gender- and Sex-related Differences in the PharmD Curricula

Introduction: Clinical presentation and treatment in many disease states vary due to sex- and gender-differences. Sex-related pharmacokinetic differences are particularly important for pharmacists. The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) currently has no standard for the inclusion of gender- and sex-related differences in the didactic PharmD curriculum, but encourages advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) to include diverse populations related to gender. The purpose of this survey is to explore faculty incorporation of gender and sex differences within the PharmD didactic curriculum in preparation for a nation-wide survey.  Methods: A survey was created to determine how many clinical topics incorporated gender- and sex-related differences and to what extent this information was discussed in the classroom. The survey link was emailed to pharmacotherapeutics and pharmacokinetics faculty at Midwestern University Chicago College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Roosevelt University, Rosalind Franklin University, and Chicago State University. Chi square analyses were performed to examine relationships across participant responses.  Results: A total of 56 faculty members participated in the survey, resulting in a 20% response rate. Of these, 30 (54.5%) faculty indicated that they discussed gender- and sex-related differences in the subject area in which they teach. Approximately 33% of respondents found gender- and sex-related differences very clinically important. Gender- and sex- related differences were taught in a variety of subject areas, including cardiology, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Conclusion: With no current standard, faculty members independently choose to include gender- and sex-related differences in their lecture topics and the extent of the discussion. Faculty should be aware of this lack of standardization and that they are independently responsible for including gender- and sex-related differences in their particular topics.  Because the surveyed faculty find gender- and sex-related differences clinically important and literature suggests differences in medications depending on gender and sex, further research is planned to provide insight on a national level. Treatment of Human Subjects: IRB exemption granted   Type: Original Researc

Comparing the Effectiveness of Cannabis Use and Opioid Use in Palliative Care Patients

This project aims to study the efficacy of the use of marijuana versus opioids for pain management in patients over 65 years old on palliative care. Palliative care is defined as an approach that focuses on improving the quality of care of seriously ill people and their families (Wallerstedt et. al., 2019). Opioids have been a reliable form of chronic pain relief in the past, but since the legalization of marijuana in some states, it has been presented as an alternative. A search was conducted using key words including marijuana, opioids, palliative care, and pain management. Exclusion criteria included articles published prior to 2017 as well as articles written about pain management methods other than opioids and marijuana. The literature indicated that while opioids are a reliable source of pain relief in this population, there are several adverse effects associated with their use including an increased fall risk, increased mental fatigue or delirium, and respiratory depression. An alternative form of pain relief is marijuana, which does not share many of the adverse effects associated with opioids. However, there are barriers to marijuana use in a palliative care setting, including legality of marijuana in certain states, and the related barriers to educating providers about the use of the drug. The alternative of using marijuana for pain relief, indicates a decrease in side effects seen in opioids and adequate pain relief seen in palliative care patients

Logistic regression models to predict solvent accessible residues using sequence- and homology-based qualitative and quantitative descriptors applied to a domain-complete X-ray structure learning set

A working example of relative solvent accessibility (RSA) prediction for proteins is presented. Novel logistic regression models with various qualitative descriptors that include amino acid type and quantitative descriptors that include 20- and six-term sequence entropy have been built and validated. A domain-complete learning set of over 1300 proteins is used to fit initial models with various sequence homology descriptors as well as query residue qualitative descriptors. Homology descriptors are derived from BLASTp sequence alignments, whereas the RSA values are determined directly from the crystal structure. The logistic regression models are fitted using dichotomous responses indicating buried or accessible solvent, with binary classifications obtained from the RSA values. The fitted models determine binary predictions of residue solvent accessibility with accuracies comparable to other less computationally intensive methods using the standard RSA threshold criteria 20 and 25% as solvent accessible. When an additional non-homology descriptor describing Lobanov–Galzitskaya residue disorder propensity is included, incremental improvements in accuracy are achieved with 25% threshold accuracies of 76.12 and 74.45% for the Manesh-215 and CASP(8+9) test sets, respectively. Moreover, the described software and the accompanying learning and validation sets allow students and researchers to explore the utility of RSA prediction with simple, physically intuitive models in any number of related applications

Occupational Therapy Interventions to Support Aging in Place: A Rapid Systematic Review

Indiana University Purdue University IndianapolisThis rapid systematic review discusses the evidence of 30 studies for the effectiveness of occupational therapy (OT) in supporting aging in place, or safely living in one’s home independently. Many older adults suffer from at least one disability, which can be a threat to both independence and safety. Further, falls and injuries raise healthcare costs, which can include nursing facility housing. The transition from living in one’s home to living in a long-term care facility dramatically impacts occupational participation and performance. Supporting aging in place increases safety, quality of life, and independence in one’s home environment. In order to support aging in place, we looked at the effectiveness of multiple occupational therapy interventions that targeted occupational performance and participation, quality of life, falls and hospital readmissions, and community mobility. Overall, we found strong evidence to support the effectiveness of these client centered occupational therapy interventions for improving aging in place in community dwelling older adults and preventing negative health outcomes.Occupational Therap

BIOL-0940E: Precision Medicine or Privileged Medicine?

This course proposal and syllabus was conceived and developed by a partnership of the three authors - two undergraduate students and a professor at Brown University. A reflective essay describing our partnership and creative process is in development for publication. This syllabus illustrates many course details that were driven by the student partners' insights and ideas, including the learning outcomes, weekly topics and readings, assignments, active learning elements, and approaches to facilitate agency of the Brown sophomores who subsequently took the course after is was approved in 2018 (BIOL-0940E)