Firefighters face many high-risk situations, from battling fires to managing hazardous materials and medical emergencies. The inherent dangers of these scenarios are reflected in the statistics from the U.S. Fire Administration, which reported 141 on-duty firefighter fatalities in 2021. Recognizing the critical need for enhanced safety, the…

The use of simulation holds promise for the future of dietetics education in its ability to replace up to 30% of the 1,000 required supervised practice hours for the training of future Registered Dietitian Nutritionists. Even more so, simulation is a teaching tool. When done well, such alternate learning experiences can challenge students in a…

The need for the current study is found in the lack of cohesive teams at the professional level in healthcare. Lack of teamwork in patient care can result in miscommunication, leading to medical errors and patient safety events. The use of interprofessional education early and often in health sciences education is viewed as a way to help…

The use of virtual reality in higher education plays a major role in addressing key areas of teaching, research, and learning. The applicable use of virtual reality sets the stage for ways to integrate an immersive environment, customizable based on higher education constituents preferences. The purpose of this research was to determine emerged…

The problem addressed in this study was the lack of critical thinking (CT) and clinical judgment (CJ) skills of senior level associate degree nursing students entering nursing orientation programs. The purpose of this randomized Solomon four-group pretest-posttest comparative study was to compare CJ and CT of senior level ADN students entering…

Introduction: Empathy is an essential trait for nursing. Empathy as a construct consists of a cognitive and affective domain. The construct is associated with decreased clinician burnout, reduced stress, and improved patient-centered care. Nursing education has recognized the clinical benefits of empathy and has implemented various educational…

Data are an essential factor in the fourth industrial revolution, demanding engineers and scientists to leverage and analyze their potential for significantly improving the efficiency of industrial processes and their control systems. In classical industrial process control systems, the models are constructed using linear data-driven approaches,…

The present investigation aims to identify best practices to design virtual reality (VR) story-worlds to promote prejudice reduction and foster prosocial attitudes toward under-represented groups. Past research shows that VR, which allows the simulation of scenarios that would otherwise be prohibitively difficult or impossible in real life, can be…

Interprofessional practice has become a key component of health professions training programs in recent years as health care has shifted to a more team-based approach to patient care. Because of this, health professions training programs have been tasked with ensuring that students receive adequate training prior to graduation. In the field of…

This dissertation investigates how early career teachers' orientations of students and their mathematical activity, as surfaced their experience in a simulation, can reveal when their well-intentioned decisions might negatively impact traditionally underserved students. Three early career teachers engaged in two online simulations where they could…

Data visualization is a powerful strategy for using graphics to represent data for effective communication and analysis. Unfortunately, creating effective data visualizations is a challenge for both novice and expert design users. The task often involves an iterative process of trial and error, which by its nature, is time-consuming. Designers…

Simulations were conducted to establish best practice in hyperparameter optimization and accounting for clustering in Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Model Trees (GLMM trees). Using data-driven best practices, the relationship between a 9th Grade On-Track to Graduate (9G-OTG) indicator and observed high school graduation within four years was…

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of virtual reality (VR) and emotionally resonant videos on knowledge retention for adult learners at a contractor safety training organization supporting the energy industry. The intent of this research was to determine if traditional computer-based training (CBT) can be made more…

This dissertation compares the performance of equivalence test (EQT) and null hypothesis test (NHT) procedures for identifying invariant and noninvariant factor loadings under a range of experimental manipulations. EQT is the statistically appropriate approach when the research goal is to find evidence of group similarity rather than group…

Situation awareness (SA) is linked with actionable decision-making and clinical judgment in nursing practice. The cognitive processes used in developing SA, outlined in Endsley's (1995) model, is the framework underpinning this study and are interwoven into the National Council of State Boards of Nursing Clinical Judgment Measurement Model…