Healthcare Student Collegiate Honors Decision-Making: A Grounded Theory

This qualitative study explored high aptitude healthcare students’ decision-making surrounding collegiate honors program participation. The topic of decision-making was relevant; according the National Collegiate Honors Council (2014-2015) the mean four-year honors program completion rate is less than 50% . The primary research question explored how students’ values, knowledge, and experiences influenced decisions to participate in a collegiate honors program. Twenty-five students’ were interviewed representing ten different healthcare professions. The transcribed narratives were analyzed using a constructivist grounded theory method. The result was a model, grounded in the data, which identified the factors associated with decisions to join, decline or drop the program. Four major themes comprise the Model of Healthcare Student Collegiate Honors Decision-Making: Pre-college experiences, valuing honors, selective admission, and confounding factors. High school pre-college experiences in honors courses or the National Honors Society were linked directly to pre-selection for program admission. Valuing honors curricula and pre-selection for admission were associated with joining the program. Knowledge of confounding factors which led students’ to decline or drop the program were: Major demands, the stress of the program, lack of ethnic diversity, cost, and concerns about the program lowering their cumulative grade point average. The generated theory identified modifiable factors that can be addressed to improve program admission, retention and completion rates. The study also captured healthcare students’ innovative ideas on how to overcome barriers to program completion through the integrating interprofessional education (IPE) into liberal arts based honors coursewor

HealthCare Students-Grounded Theory

Brenda Frie, Assistant Professor in the Occupational Therapy Department, was awarded a $7,500 Carol Easley Denny Award to explore how healthcare students make decisions to participate in an honors program using a grounded theory approach. Upon review of the literature, there is no prior research exploring how a healthcare student decides to or not to participate in honors programming. Although there are assumptions that their decisions are influenced by the high credit requirement, structured course format and timing of internship placements within healthcare programs. Historically, honors programs were designed to enrich the core of liberal arts courses. In recent years, the programs have flexed to meet the changing face of higher education by offering contrast and point based formats focused on discipline or mission-based themes such as service, leadership, or research. While discipline-based healthcare honors programs exists, none simulate clinical practice through requiring significant across discipline team educational experiences. Exploration of the student decision-making process influencing whether or not to participate in honors is important to address the problem of low numbers of healthcare students in honors programs at St. Catherine University. Utilizing a grounded theory approach, this study seeks to capture the voice of healthcare students eligible for, or interested in participating in an IPE honors program. The purpose of this study is to generate a substantive theory of how healthcare students decide to participate in honors to inform the development of an IPE honors program

Preventing Urinary Tract Infections in a Rehabilitation Unit: A Case Study of Current Practice

Brenda Frie, Assistant Professor of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy, and Debra Filer, Professor of Nursing, were awarded $2,782 to explore the variations in the development of urinary tract infections (UTIs) for adult patients admitted to the Abbott Northwestern Hospital who have a neurogenic bladder requiring intermittent bladder catheterization. The study has five aims which include describing the rehabilitation unit context that supports or hinders the prevention of UTIs; identifying essential care elements that prevent UTIs for patients who are self-cathing or who require nurses to do intermittent catheterization; identifying gaps in the current care and staff education that contribute to the occurrence of UTIs; and making recommendations for developing a UTI prevention bundle, unit processes, and staff development to prevent UTIs for adult patients on a rehabilitation unit with neurogenic bladders requiring intermittent bladder catheterization