Assessing and Reducing the Elusive Faculty Workload: The Role of the Graduate Nursing Student Faculty Navigator

Nursing programs have struggled with defining the faculty workload. Most academic institutions with a healthcare focus use a percentage of time allotted for teaching, research, service, and practice. The mission of the institution often dictates which of the four carries the most weight. Some institutions define the teaching load based on academic hours while others use contact hours. Typically, service receives the smallest percentage of the assigned faculty workload. Yet, service is the area in which many miscellaneous tasks are allocated. Student advising, committee service, and service to the profession are often incorporated in the small percentage of time allotted for service. There are many responsibilities outside of the typical roles that must be addressed in order to support the student experience and enhance the student’s satisfaction, retention, and ultimate success. Nursing faculty fill ancillary roles and become the collaborator with all other departments and students, the investigator, the information technologist, the program marketer, the peacemaker, the stabilizer, and the overall problem solver in order to promote the mission and vision of an organization. Many activities are not captured in traditional faculty workload models. This presentation will demonstrate the process used to identify student “touch points” with representatives at a health sciences university and begin to capture some previously elusive faculty roles. The presentation will include an assessment of faculty service involved in the process of evaluating applications for admission and a description of how the faculty workload was reduced over the period of one year at a health sciences university

Cohesive Integration of E-Learning in Nursing Leadership Reality

There is a constant challenge to develop and implement courses in a manner that leads to direct translation of principles and skills to the workplace. As health care is an everchanging field, nursing faculty are faced with a constant state of flux that leads to research, review and re-creation of course materials. Most students in graduate nursing programs are nontraditional students. These students need to apply their newly learned skills in order to remain motivated and see the immediate value from course work. Problem-based learning is a way to meet the needs of nursing students. Creating unique opportunities through the combination of distance learning, virtual face to face interaction, and local practica experiences not only leads to student success, but profound student satisfaction. It is the value-added hybrid intervention that leads to the development of work-ready students and nurse leaders

Seeking food justice: Why dignity matters

This project expands on existing food justice research through evaluation of the ways in which dignity is related to individuals' food practices and processes. Through the process of exploring daily experiences with food, I discovered that individuals socially construct a sense of dignity through an array of food-related social processes, and as a result of social and structural forces. In light of this discovery, I provide a new theoretical model of the ways that social and structural forces influence individuals' sense of dignity, and offer a new typology of daily experiences of dignity construction within the social hierarchy of food security. Based on data from ethnographic field notes, semi-structured interviews with a sample of thirty-eight participants, and archival data, this research makes an important contribution to the literature on food justice work by exploring the social construction of dignity occurring alongside food experiences. I present evidence regarding how the social hierarchy of food security, maintained through two key aspects of structural inequality, class division and constraints to opportunities, facilitates individuals' daily, lived experiences with food access and foodways. Individuals perceive these daily experiences to either promote or violate their sense of dignity. I organize daily experiences of dignity construction into three distinct social arenas--individual, relational, and institutional. My findings suggest that as a person's position in the social hierarchy of food security rises, so, too, does the likelihood of having daily experiences that positively impact individuals' sense of dignity. The inverse is equally true. Individuals occupying lower positions in the social hierarchy have a higher likelihood of experiencing daily events that negatively impact individuals' sense of dignity. Findings elucidate a new typology of daily experiences of dignity construction within the social hierarchy of food security. The theoretical contributions provided in this paper offer a first step toward achieving a central goal of the food justice movement-- restructuring the food system to promote fairness, equality, and a greater sense of dignity for all individuals.Sociolog

The Impact of Virtual Immersion in the E-Learning Environment

Students in post-graduate programs can enhance their learning efficacy and positively impact their interprofessional collaboration skills by participating in a virtual immersion experience within their e-learning course. Students from various healthcare disciplines who participated in a virtual immersion were charged with the task to create a strategic plan for a healthcare organization. Upon completion of the course, they believed the interprofessional collaborative discussions and group dynamics utilized during the virtual immersion enabled them to communicate more effectively in their workplace, thus, improving patient outcomes. The focus of this presentation is to share the impact a virtual immersion has on the student experience and patient outcomes

Testing the Impact of Group Offending on Behavioural Similarity in Serial Robbery

Behavioural case linkage assumes that offenders behave in a similar way across their crimes. However, group offending could impact on behavioural similarity. This study uses robbery data from two police forces to test this by comparing the behavioural similarity of pairs of lone offences (LL), pairs of group offences (GG) and pairs of offences where one crime was committed alone and the other in a group (GL). Behavioural similarity was measured using Jaccard’s coefficients. Kruskal–Wallis tests were used to examine differences between the three categories within the linked samples. No statistically significant differences were found for linked GG compared to linked LL pairs. However, differences emerged between GL and the other categories for some behaviours (especially control) suggesting caution should be applied when linking group and lone offences committed by the same perpetrator. Differences between linked and unlinked pairs were assessed using receiver operating characteristic. The results suggest it is possible to distinguish between linked and unlinked pairs based on behaviour especially within the GG and LL categories. There were, however, fewer significant findings for the GL sample, suggesting there may be issues linking crimes where the offender commits one crime as part of a group and the other alone

17β-Estradiol Prevents Early-Stage Atherosclerosis in Estrogen Receptor-Alpha Deficient Female Mice

Estrogen is atheroprotective and a high-affinity ligand for both known estrogen receptors, ERα and ERβ. However, the role of the ERα in early-stage atherosclerosis has not been directly investigated and is incompletely understood. ERα-deficient (ERα−/−) and wild-type (ERα+/+) female mice consuming an atherogenic diet were studied concurrent with estrogen replacement to distinguish the actions of 17β-estradiol (E2) from those of ERα on the development of early atherosclerotic lesions. Mice were ovariectomized and implanted with subcutaneous slow-release pellets designed to deliver 6 or 8 μg/day of exogenous 17β-estradiol (E2) for a period of up to 4 months. Ovariectomized mice (OVX) with placebo pellets (E2-deficient controls) were compared to mice with endogenous E2 (intact ovaries) and exogenous E2. Aortas were analyzed for lesion area, number, and distribution. Lipid and hormone levels were also determined. Compared to OVX, early lesion development was significantly (p < 0.001) attenuated by E2 with 55–64% reduction in lesion area by endogenous E2 and >90% reduction by exogenous E2. Compared to OVX, a decline in lesion number (2- to 4-fold) and lesser predilection (~4-fold) of lesion formation in the proximal aorta also occurred with E2. Lesion size, development, number, and distribution inversely correlated with circulating plasma E2 levels. However, atheroprotection was independent of ERα status, and E2 athero-protection in both genotypes was not explained by changes in plasma lipid levels (total cholesterol, triglyceride, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol). The ERα is not essential for endogenous/exogenous E2-mediated protection against early-stage atherosclerosis. These observations have potentially significant implications for understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms and timing of estrogen action in different estrogen receptor (ER) deletion murine models of atherosclerosis, as well as implications to human studies of ER polymorphisms and lipid metabolism. Our findings may contribute to future improved clinical decision-making concerning the use of hormone therapy

Pharmacogenetic meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of LDL cholesterol response to statins

Statins effectively lower LDL cholesterol levels in large studies and the observed interindividual response variability may be partially explained by genetic variation. Here we perform a pharmacogenetic meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in studies addressing the LDL cholesterol response to statins, including up to 18,596 statin-treated subjects. We validate the most promising signals in a further 22,318 statin recipients and identify two loci, SORT1/CELSR2/PSRC1 and SLCO1B1, not previously identified in GWAS. Moreover, we confirm the previously described associations with APOE and LPA. Our findings advance the understanding of the pharmacogenetic architecture of statin response

Causal effect of plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 on coronary heart disease

Background--Plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1) plays an essential role in the fibrinolysis system and thrombosis. Population studies have reported that blood PAI-1 levels are associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). However, it is unclear whether the association reflects a causal influence of PAI-1 on CHD risk. Methods and Results--To evaluate the association between PAI-1 and CHD, we applied a 3-step strategy. First, we investigated the observational association between PAI-1 and CHD incidence using a systematic review based on a literature search for PAI-1 and CHD studies. Second, we explored the causal association between PAI-1 and CHD using a Mendelian randomization approach using summary statistics from large genome-wide association studies. Finally, we explored the causal effect of PAI-1 on cardiovascular risk factors including metabolic and subclinical atherosclerosis measures. In the systematic meta-analysis, the highest quantile of blood PAI-1 level was associated with higher CHD risk comparing with the lowest quantile (odds ratio=2.17; 95% CI: 1.53, 3.07) in an age- and sex-adjusted model. The effect size was reduced in studies using a multivariable-adjusted model (odds ratio=1.46; 95% CI: 1.13, 1.88). The Mendelian randomization analyses suggested a causal effect of increased PAI-1 level on CHD risk (odds ratio=1.22 per unit increase of log-transformed PAI-1; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.47). In addition, we also detected a causal effect of PAI-1 on elevating blood glucose and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Conclusions--Our study indicates a causal effect of elevated PAI-1 level on CHD risk, which may be mediated by glucose dysfunction