Higher Education Professional Staff Engagement: Looking In And Beyond The Great Resignation

In 2021, there were 68.9 million job separations. Of those, 47.4 million people willingly left their jobs (Romans, 2022). As the “Great Resignation” in the COVID-19 era continues, many professional staff in higher education are re-examining their relationship with work (McClure, 2021). Higher education professional staff, often feeling undervalued and unappreciated, are less likely to engage and more likely to intend to turnover; leaving institutions to bear the costs of lost productivity and staff replacement. This study examines the relationship between university professional staff members’ self-reported levels of psychological engagement (meaningfulness, safety, and availability), employee engagement (cognitive, emotional, and behavioral), intention to turnover, and COVID-19 impact (intrusion and avoidance). A sample of 240 higher education professional staff at a Midwestern university completed an online survey in late 2021. Results from correlations indicate significant relationships between psychological engagement, employee engagement, intention to turnover, and COVID-19 impact. The hierarchical regression results indicate that emotional engagement has statistically significant predictability in staff turnover intentions. In the model including COVID-19 impact, COVID-19 intrusion and emotional engagement were also found to be significant predictors of intention to turnover. Consideration of the implications of this study include how higher education administrators may address staff members’ engagement and potential turnover intention. One way is by effecting a comprehensive and strategic focus on a caring campus culture that values diversity, equity, inclusion, and a sense of belonging amongst staff, administrators, faculty, and students—even in an era of great disruption

Translation of a Nutrition Literacy Assessment Instrument for Use in the Latino Population of Greater Kansas City

Introduction: An individual’s degree of nutrition literacy impacts their diet quality and overall health. Determining an individual’s or a population’s nutrition literacy can help registered dietitians and other nutrition experts tailor educational programs and materials to meet the educational needs of their audience. Latinos face disparities when it comes to health and health education. The purpose of this research is to translate and validate a nutrition literacy assessment tool for use among this population. Methods: The Nutrition Literacy Assessment Instrument (NLit) developed by Dr. Heather Gibbs was adjusted to be culturally relevant for the Latino population of Kansas City and translated into Spanish. The NLit-S was reviewed by experts and tested using cognitive interviews in order to determine content validity and relevance to the target population. Finally, the reading level of the NLit-S was determined using the Fernandez-Huerta Readability Test. Results: The content of the NLit-S was found to be valid and written at a reading level appropriate for the target audience. Discussion: Assessment of nutrition literacy among the Latino population will allow health professionals to design nutrition education interventions that meet the needs of the population in the effort to reduce the risk of chronic disease development. Since there is no nutrition literacy assessment tool written and validated for use among Latinos, this research will attempt to close that gap by translating a valid instrument into Spanish and ensuring cultural validity for the target population

Psychophysiology of respiratory disease : clinical considerations for the advanced practice nurse

The purpose of this article is to describe the psychophysiology of dyspnea in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), identify the unique impact of respiratory disease on the female patient, and discuss the relationship of anxiety and depression in disease manifestation. Current COPD assessment and treatment guidelines published by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the World Health Organization as well as the National Institute for Health and Care Experience (NICE) will be presented along with implications for the Advanced Practice Nurse (APN). Practitioners treat COPD patients with advanced physiological complications along with psychological comorbidities that worsen the disease perception and progression. Therefore, a recommendation will be made to integrate assessment and evaluation of psychological comorbidities in COPD patients, with particular consideration given to the female patient. Utilizing a holistic, int egrated treatment plan will serve to enhance patient care, alleviate disease burden and impact overall quality of life in the patient with COPD.peer-reviewe

A Leap in the Right Direction for California Public Education: The Local Control and Accountability Plan and its Effects on Latino English Learners

The California State Legislature passed Assembly Bill 97 in June 2013 and Governor Brown signed it into law on July 1, 2013. The legislation created the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP). The LCFF changed the way that school districts in California receive education funding from the state, shifting from a complex categorical program towards a per-pupil based formula. Furthermore, school districts receive “supplemental” and “concentration” funds based on the number of English learners, low-income students and foster youth in the district. The LCAP is a key component of this new funding system and requires that school districts create an accountability document showing how they intend to allocate funds and how they propose to track student outcomes. The 2014-15 academic year was the first full-year of policy implementation, and this thesis investigates how districts around the state created their LCAP. Drawing from research reports, press coverage, and a case study of Claremont Unified School District, this investigation finds that the LCAP has the potential to make the California public education system more equitable and adequate

Labour market and intra-household dynamics in urban Tanzania

While a large body of literature documents the existence of informal arrangements to share risk across and within households, there has been little research on the various coping strategies through which risk sharing takes place, and how these strategies function. This study attempts to fill this gap in the literature and examine whether, and to what extent, individual labour-supply behaviour is one of such coping strategies used by households facing risk. Our hypothesis is that, as with a small business, individuals adjust their employment behaviour in the event that one of their household members experiences a variation in their labour supply, that is, either gains or loses a job. Using a unique dataset that collects employment histories for each family member in Tanzania, our results confirm our hypothesis and show that the labour supply of the household members is an important determinant of employment transitions, and that these effects are greater for women than for men. In the context of low-income countries, we interpret these findings as evidence that the household works as a risk-sharing institution built around women’s labour supply

Trumped Up Charges: Empirical Effects of U.S. Immigration Reform on Crime and Jobs

This brief examines the effects, both intended and unintended, of two previous efforts to deter and regulate unauthorized immigration. Recent research shows that the Immigration and Reform Act of 1986, by cutting off access to legal employment for undocumented immigrants, actually increases the probability that some people who are not in the country legally will engage in crime. And despite heightened efforts to police and deport undocumented immigrants in accordance with Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, studies indicate that any resultant decreases in immigrant populations did nothing to improve employment opportunities for low-skilled native residents. While past research reveals some of the limitations and unintended negative impacts of laws aimed at making the U.S. less attractive to unauthorized immigrants, less is known about the potential positive impacts of laws aimed at inclusion. Such knowledge could help to enlighten future debates over comprehensive reform.https://repository.upenn.edu/pennwhartonppi/1029/thumbnail.jp

Think You Know Ketchup, Think Again

This project was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Science in Journalism degree

The evolution of inverted magnetic fields through the inner heliosphere

Local inversions are often observed in the heliospheric magnetic field (HMF), but their origins and evolution are not yet fully understood.Parker Solar Probe has recently observed rapid, Alfvénic, HMF inversions in the inner heliosphere, known as ‘switchbacks’, which have been interpreted as the possible remnants of coronal jets. It has also been suggested that inverted HMF may be produced by near-Sun interchange reconnection; a key process in mechanisms proposed for slow solar wind release. These cases suggest that the source of inverted HMF is near the Sun, and it follows that these inversions would gradually decay and straighten as they propagate out through the heliosphere. Alternatively, HMF inversions could form during solar wind transit, through phenomena such velocity shears, draping over ejecta, or waves and turbulence. Such processes are expected to lead to a qualitatively radial evolution of inverted HMF structures. Using Helios measurements spanning 0.3–1 AU, we examine the occurrence rate of inverted HMF, as well as other magnetic field morphologies, as a function of radial distance r, and find that it continually increases. This trend may be explained by inverted HMF observed between 0.3–1 AU being primarily driven by one or more of the above in-transit processes, rather than created at the Sun. We make suggestions as to the relative importance of these different processes based on the evolution of the magnetic field properties associated with inverted HMF. We also explore alternative explanations outside of our suggested driving processes which may lead to the observed trend

Acute HPA Axis Responses to Social Stress Longitudinally Predict Adolescent Girls’ Depressive Symptoms: The Moderating Role of Subjective Stress Responses

Increases in interpersonal stress and depressive symptoms during adolescence have stimulated greater attention to stress response models of adolescent depression, but it remains unclear why only certain adolescents are vulnerable to the depressogenic effects of stress while others are not. The current study examined associations among experiences of interpersonal stress, affective reactivity, and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity to an in-vivo psychosocial stressor as prospective predictors of depressive symptoms nine months later. Hypotheses were examined with a clinically oversampled group of 109 adolescent girls (aged 12-16) to ensure an examination of the widest possible range of prior life stress. Results indicate that adolescent girls who are most emotionally and physiologically reactive to stress and experience significant social stress are most likely to experience elevated levels of depressive symptoms longitudinally. Findings suggest that it may be critical to examine both physiological and affective stress responses when assessing risk for depression in adolescents.Master of Art