Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer for Chinese Americans. Family history (FH) plays an important role in clinical practice for CRC prevention. Nevertheless, Chinese Americans' FH of CRC communication with primary care physicians (PCPs) are still unknown. Aims: This study examined Chinese Americans' behavior and the…

LGBTQ + young people of color manage societal marginalization related to their LGBTQ + and racial/ethnic identities, which can shape health challenges. Despite their elevated need for responsive health services, cultural competence among service providers has largely focused on race/ethnicity, rather than LGBTQ + status, resulting in a lack of…

Critical thinking skills remain one of the top requirements for nurses in order to adequately deal with patients diagnosed with growing comorbidities, all to improve quality of care. Critical thinking skills are now considered a core competency for all educational nursing programs in the United States. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive…

The United States continues to grow in both population and diversity. The trigger for this project was the dramatic increase in patient diversity in Texas and the lack of adequate cultural competency training for providers at a Texas oncology clinic network. Clinicians must increase their self-awareness and knowledge to provide culturally…

Purpose: Patients receive multiple bolus trials during a videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS) to assess swallow function, inclusive of narrowing within the pharyngoesophageal segment (PES). While differences in the narrowest and widest segments are visualized, the ratio of distention across boluses is not well understood. Method: A…

Developing transition planning for youth living with severe and persistent mental illness requires the creation, memorialization, and retrieval of appropriate and responsive treatment preferences to meet their needs, especially during a mental health crisis. Regrettably, transition-aged youth at the age of 18 can no longer rely on their support…

Poor nursing documentation of patient care was identified in daily nurse visit notes in a health care setting. This problem affects effective communication of patient status with other clinicians, thereby jeopardizing clinical decision-making. The purpose of this evidence-based project was to determine the impact of a retraining program on the…

Background: It is estimated that one in three women will experience intimate partner violence (IPV) in their life time. It is recommended that healthcare professional screen patients for IPV, but screening rates and positive disclosure rates remain low. Best practices for screening for IPV in the healthcare setting include screening alone, showing…

Background: The education of trainees in the intensive care unit (ICU) is extremely challenging due to factors related to the ICU environment, ICU trainees and physicians, ICU subspecialty training, and safety and quality of care delivered to critically ill patients. There is a lack of standardized educational curricula and instructional methods…

Background: Equitable healthcare outcomes are compromised in the absence of strong medical care and social services linkages. In May 2019, Children's Health, the largest health system for pediatric care in North Texas, initiated a three-pronged social determinants of health (SDOH) quality improvement (QI) project that included: (1) baseline and…

Nurse education uses an apprenticeship model to teach students clinical skills. However, lack of faculty, clinical preceptors, early hospital discharges, and lack of clinical practice areas limits nursing students' exposure to patients which could impact patient care. The use of virtual simulation may bridge the theory-practice gap in nurse…

The purpose of this study was to examine the role and relationship of the practice of Christian beliefs and resilience in the context of dementia patient caregivers' lives. The guiding question was "What is the relational nature of the practice of Christian beliefs and resilience in the lived experiences of caregivers of dementia…

Objectives: To describe the development of a collaborative partnership to improve birth outcomes in Harris County, Texas. Methods: State and city-level maternal and infant health data were re-analyzed and presented to stakeholders at the zip-code level to generate a renewed response to health issues in these populations, particularly infant…

The State of Texas began enforcement of the Woman's Right to Know (WRTK) Act on January 1, 2004. The law requires that all abortions at or after 16 weeks' gestation be performed in an ambulatory surgical center (ASC). In the month the law went into effect, not one of Texas's 54 nonhospital abortion providers met the requirements of a surgical…

The cost of the American healthcare system has escalated to the point that the United States spends more per patient than any other country. Based on the cost controls and increase in efficiency seen in other industries, many agree that information technology solutions should be adopted by the American healthcare industry. However, healthcare…