Various terms describe Information and Communications Technology (ICT) use in healthcare, including Health Informatics (HI). HI use in healthcare is expected to positively impact healthcare through healthcare cost reduction and improve healthcare accessibility and decision-making. However, the effective application and use of technology in…

This dissertation consists of three papers. In each, I use applied econometric methods and economic theory to study the American teacher workforce. The first paper evaluates a novel policy to address teacher shortages by promoting experienced school staff to be teachers of record. Controlling for demographics and baseline scores, I find that…

A mixed-methods randomized controlled trial pilot study evaluated an educational curriculum focused on the medical needs of transition-age youth (TAY) with autism (ASD) for family nurse practitioner students. Fourteen out of a cohort of 16 (87.5%) nursing students consented to participate in the study and were randomly assigned to either a…

Clinical judgment has become an increasingly important aspect of modern health service professionals. To ensure public safety, licensure exams must go beyond assessing only knowledge and skills when evaluating entry-level professions to evaluating clinical judgment. This importance necessitates licensure and certification examinations in these…

Among schools of nursing nationwide, the competition for clinical sites, and insufficient numbers of nurse preceptors led nursing schools to turn away thousands of qualified applicants. Due to a shortage of clinical sites, shortage of nurse preceptors, and an increase in simulation technology, nursing schools used simulation clinical in place of…

Background: Adults with intellectual disability should be involved in decision-making about their care. However, little is known regarding their experience of engaging in care planning within health services. In a rapidly changing healthcare environment, the relevance and necessity of demonstrating care delivered and care outcomes is essential for…

Nursing faculty are responsible for graduating competent students and being competent themselves; however, the required competencies of clinical nursing faculty who instruct students in the clinical area are unidentified. The practice problem addressed in this project was the lack of a structured, organized process for identifying initial and…

Distance students consider online faculty availability and immediacy to be very important. Understanding student course usage is imperative to be able to align with their needs. The results of daily course usage by fully online nursing students enrolled in three separate clinical courses on an LPN to BSN track illustrate a clear pattern of…

This interpretative phenomenological study was conducted to understand how a nursing college's organizational structure may affect a returning nursing student's sense of empowerment and motivation to succeed. A returning student is a student who previously failed in a nursing program and was reaccepted to the Maine College of Health Professions's…

Nurse preceptors are challenged to not only teach but also evaluate student nurse's clinical skills in a complex practice environment. This basic qualitative study illuminated factors that influenced the role of the nurse preceptor, as well as teaching and evaluation aspects in the precepting guidance of student nurses. Albert Bandura's…

An institute of higher education located in the United States was unable to maintain the required first-time pass rate, on the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) exam, by nursing graduates, as defined by their State Board of Nursing and accreditation body. Failure to meet these requirements resulted in a…

Educators expect the number of institutions offering online courses and the number of students enrolling in these courses to increase as many students, particularly nontraditional students, discover the advantages of online content delivery. Online courses require new methods of communication between students and faculty as well as discovering new…

Professional identity impacts the workforce at personal, interpersonal and profession levels however there is a lack of reviews of professional identity research across practising health professionals. To summarise professional identity research in the health professions literature and explore how professional identity is described a scoping…

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have the potential to impact student success and reduce barriers for students to participate in undergraduate research. Literature review has revealed that, while CUREs are being implemented at both community colleges (CCs) and bachelor's degree-granting institutions, there are limited…

Active teaching methods are believed to facilitate higher-order thinking skills and prepare allied health students for independent clinical decision-making. This quantitative, correlational study aimed to explain the relationships between student preferences for active over traditional methods and their beliefs, the frequency and positiveness of…