Designing an Innovative Ecosystem for Student Success: Kennesaw State University Wellstar College of Health and Human Services’ Conceptual Model

The Wellstar College of Health and Human Services (WCHSS) at Kennesaw State University developed a new theoretical model to understand and impact student success by combining two existing frameworks: Whole School, Whole Community, and Whole Child (WSCC) (Willgerodt and Maloy, 2021) and the Student Success Ecosystem (Millet et al, 2020). The WCHSS Student Success Model also appends novel constructs to produce an innovative holistic student success model with four key domains and two strategic initiatives. This model provides academics and practitioners with a framework to conceptualize student success, develop actionable interventions to drive improvement, and evaluate outcomes that continue the call to define student success more holistically

Exploration and Description of Faith Community Nurses’ Documentation Practices and Perceived Documentation Barriers.

Purpose: Documentation within Faith Community Nursing is an expected aspect of the professional specialty but is under-studied. Findings in previously published studies suggest there is a lack of consistent documentation practices among FCNs. Therefore, the aim of this research study was to explore and describe documentation practices of FCNs, and identify the perceived barriers to documentation. Methodology: This mixed methods research had both qualitative and quantitative components. The qualitative inquiry involved three live focus groups and three telephonic key informant interviews (n = 28). Conventional content analysis was used to examine all qualitative data. The quantitative inquiry involved a survey that was developed to capture the objective data related to FCNs’ demographic characteristics as well as documentation practices (n = 153). Findings: The qualitative findings reveal that FCNs engage in the professional mandate for documentation but lack clarity for autonomous practice and nursing process expectations. The nurses attempt to capture the fullness of specialty encounters but lack supportive infrastructure and interprofessional communication. The quantitative findings indicated these nurses are a highly-educated group with bachelors and masters level education who document at least sometimes using a variety of approaches. Most had computer skills and most would use a smart phone or table application to document if appropriate software was developed specifically for FCNs. Conclusion: Even though FCNs are aware of their documentation responsibilities, they still are not consistently documenting. The documentation largely is focused on quantity and not quality of interactions. The streamlining, standardizing, and sharing of FCN documentation could support healthcare transformation as well as provide evidence of FCN practice outcomes

Serum profiling of inflammatory cytokines and obesity and stress-associated hormones in women with or without breast cancer

Background: Breast cancer (BC)health disparities exist between African American (AA)and Caucasian American (CA) women. AA women develop BC earlier in life and are diagnosed with more aggressive phenotype leading to a poorer prognosis than their CA counterparts. Several factors, ranging from social, economic, behavioral to inherent biological differences, are associated with disparities and often one factor influences the other. Here we examined the levels of stress (cortisol),obesity (leptin) hormones and inflammatory cytokines (resistin and IL6) in serum samples obtained from AA and CA women with or without BC. Methods: AA and CA women who visited University of South Alabama Health Hospitals, were asked to participate in this study voluntarily and their consent was obtained. Blood samples were collected from a total of 30 women without BC (15 AA and 15 CA) and 44 with a BC diagnosis (22 AA and 22 CA). Serum was isolated by centrifugation after coagulation, aliquoted and stored at −80 °C. Serum levels of resistin, IL-6, leptin, and cortisol were quantified by performing Enzyme linked Immunosorbent assay using commercial kits. Statistical analyses were performed using Graph pad prism 8.0. Results: High levels of serum cortisol, leptin, resistin and IL-6 were observed in BC patients. Furthermore, AA women with or without BC diagnosis showed significantly higher levels of these hormones and cytokines than CA women. Conclusion: Higher levels of cortisol, leptin, resistin and IL-6 in BC patients suggest their role in aggressive tumor phenotypes, immune suppression and consequently poorer prognosis of the patients