Implementing A Workload Tool To Increase Float Nurses\u27 Job Satisfaction And Reduce Intent To Leave The Workplace

Float nurses report frustration and dissatisfaction with their patient assignment distribution on a continual basis; citing that they often receive the highest workload and most acute patients. This experience is closely related to nurses’ job satisfaction with an established association between perception of unfair patient assignment and intent to leave the workplace. This project aims to utilize a workload score to create a balanced and transparent nursing assignment. With the imminent nursing shortage, float nurses have the ability increase overall satisfaction for in-patient hospital nurses and reduce nurse burnout throughout the in-patient areas. This project will address equitable patient care assignments with direct implications for nurse retention and cost savings. Findings provide strong support for the use of the workload tool as a means to systematically bolster job satisfaction in this sector of our already stressed nursing workforce and address the urgent problem of nursing retention

An Experimental Study of Evaporites on Titan: Implications for Lake Composition and Future Missions

Titan is the only other planetary body in the solar system with liquid on the surface. With a surface temperature and pressure of 89 – 94 K and 1.5 bar (N2), respectively, Titan’s lakes are comprised of liquid hydrocarbons, predominantly methane and ethane. Over time, Titan’s lakes may evaporate, leaving behind residual deposits (evaporites). The evaporation processes and composition of the evaporites is poorly understood. I address these outstanding questions by experimentally investigating the physical and spectral properties of evaporites at Titan surface conditions using an experimental chamber. Chapter 1 addresses the formation of ethylene evaporites. Ethylene evaporites form more quickly with pure methane, because methane readily evaporates at Titan surface conditions. Ethylene absorption bands at 1.630 and 2.121 μm are redshifted after evaporite formation. These results imply that ethylene is a good candidate for Titan’s evaporites, although they may be restricted to methane-dominated lakes/seas. Chapter 2 addresses the ability to detect the formation of the acetylene-benzene co-crystal using FTIR spectroscopy. The co-crystal is easily identifiable upon formation at ~135 K, as evidenced by drastic spectral band shifts, several new bands in the C-H stretching and combination bands regions, and clear morphological changes of the sample. The co-crystal is stable down to Titan temperatures (90 K). Studying co-crystal formation provides insights into co-condensation in Titan’s atmosphere, and evaporite formation and composition. Chapter 3 investigates the formation of evaporites with acetonitrile. Acetylene and acetonitrile form a co-crystal between 118 – 174 K, which is stable down to 90 K. New bands at 1.676 µm and morphological changes to the sample confirm co-crystal formation. We observe new shapes to NIR absorptions that were not previously present in pure component experiments. These results have implications for astrobiologically relevant co-crystals and where nitrile compounds may accumulate on Titan. Chapter 4 addresses more complex evaporite experiments (“binary” experiments) with two evaporite molecules combined. Acetylene is the most prominent species in these experiments, and the acetylene-acetonitrile co-crystal is stable before, during, and after methane evaporation. These results and future binary experiments can help assess the validity of evaporite models, and represent a more realistic view of evaporite solutions