Colleges and Department Research
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Item A Focus Group Study of Perceptions of Quality of Care Among Nurses in Nursing Homes(2010-09) Burke, George C.; Adams, Carmen AnnA research team conducted a focus group study of central Texas nurses over a period of several weeks during September and October of 2009, at four different long-term care facilities. The total number of respondents was 15. We sought insight into the experience of nurses in quality of care, the nurses' perceptions of management competence, and we sought the nurses' perceptions of their roles as contrasted with the roles of certified nursing assistants (CNAs). Basing our set of questions on those from a 2001 study of CNAs, we found that nurses view quality in a holistic manner - - meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the resident to the greatest degree possible. We found that nurses in one of the four facilities had made progress in cultural change. Nurses and families saw management competence as the effectiveness and speed in which managers responded to questions or complaints. The study found nurses to be motivated by the job itself, seeing it as a ministry to the elderly. Several managerial implications are included in the study, including management's role in quality, motivation, and cultural change.Item A Practitioner's Guide to Culturally Sensitive Practice for Death and Dying(2002-04) Cohoe, Merri; Contreras, Sue Ellen; Sparks, DebraThe purpose of this manual is to educate health care professionals in all areas of practice regarding religious and cultural beliefs in reference to end of life issues. This information is imperative to the helping process, and when utilized, will allow practitioners to provide the best possible service to clients. The following information is to be used as a general guideline and should not be considered definitive with respect to an individual's personal, religious, or cultural beliefs and perceptions. This manual is a collaboration of materials collected with the purpose of assisting practitioners in facilitating culturally and religiously sensitive service at this extremely fragile time in the helping process. In many circumstances, a lack of awareness or information deters professional engagement in times of grief and loss. This disengagement may be misconstrued as a lack of compassion, when in fact, the practitioner may lack the knowledge and cultural understanding required to serve diverse populations. This resource manual has been designed to enhance the multicultural perspective to include the traditions and beliefs of varied religions, denominations, and institutions concerning death and dying as a valuable component of practice applicable to diverse settings and professions. We encourage health care professions to utilize this tool, and when in doubt, to consult with the client. It is vital to remember that diversity exists not only between religions, but also within.Item A Profile of Nursing Assistants Employed in Central Texas Nursing Homes(1994-12) Ransom, Sandy; Fox, NancyNo abstract prepared.Item A Source Book of Materials on the San Marcos Chautauqua, 1885-1895(1938-01) Henderson, RubyTerm paper prepared for the University of Texas course 384f, The history of education in Texas, taught by Dr. Eby, 1937-1938.Item Accessibility in Institutional Repositories(2020-08) Waugh, Laura; Lyon, Colleen; Shelton, Abigail; Park, Kristi; Hicks, William; Lindsey, NerissaReport on findings from a survey conducted in Fall 2019 to gauge accessibility practices for digital content made available in institutional repositories. For the purpose of this study, we focus on the digital content collected in institutional repositories and workflows at academic libraries, rather than the websites and software platforms. This study is intended to establish a baseline measurement of current accessibility practices in hopes that studies such as this will help inform the wider community of the challenges and obstacles faced by institutional repository mangers and staff in ensuring accessibility to content. Anonymized data from this survey is available in the Texas Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.18738/T8/LUGYPOItem Adaptive Music/Dance Therapy: An Activity to Improve Quality of Life in Long Term Care Settings(2010-05) Nauert, RickAs a result of medical advances and improved self-care, people are living longer. By 2050 government forecasts call for 86.7 million individuals aged 65 or older -- encompassing 20.6 percent of the total population. For many, advanced age is accompanied by reduction in mental capabilities and ambulatory capabilities necessitating a need for medical care and/or assistance to perform everyday activities. For the older, old (> 85 years), one of the fastest growing population segments, this often means living in an assisted living or long-term care facility. Although sadness and depression are not a normal characteristic of aging, nursing home residents are often depressed as a host of risk factors accompany aging and residency in a long-term care facility. Interventions to provide mental stimulation, overcome loneliness, foster social support, aid functional capabilities, and improve perception of care are needed for this special population cohort. In an effort to address these issues we initiated a pilot study of an intervention that blended active music therapy and modified danced therapy. Twenty-two residents from two senior facilities (19 skilled residents and 3 from an Assisted Living setting) were assessed. All skilled residents were wheel chair bound while assisted living residents were ambulatory. Three residents dropped from the study. Twice a week, 45-60 minute activity sessions were performed for 8 weeks. Pre-and post-study assessment of cognitive status, depression symptoms, and functional abilities were performed. Regression analysis discovered mild improvements in mental status and cognitive abilities and a significant improvement in depression scores (p = .000).Item Alkek Library Web Usability Study Report(2005-06) Ogbaa, Clara; Kilman, Leigh; Ancelet, Lisa; Fisher, LorinWeb usability testing conducted on June 2 and June 6, 2005. Report prepared by the Library Web Usability Study Taskforce members.Item An Analysis of a Statewide Survey and the Assessment of Needs within the Long Term Care Delivery System in the State of Texas(1995-09) Upchurch, Marian; Knox, BethThis needs assessment study addressed the needs of various components of the nursing home industry in Texas - those involved in management of long term care facilities, those involved in direct care of long tern care residents, owners of long term care facilities, those involved in regulatory aspects of long term care, and those involved consumers - direct and indirect - of services in long term care facilities. The assessment addressed structural, process, and educational needs of nursing homes. Ten key items were identified via several pretests and utilized in the final survey through a closed format Lilcert-type instrument and a narrative component which also allowed for an open-ended expression of ideas or concerns. The ten key items utilized in the final survey were: (1) Management training for all supervisors, (2) More geriatric nursing skills, (3) Increased physician involvement, (4) Greater consistency in the survey process, (5) Requirement for improved nurse aide to resident ratio, (6) More sensitivity by staff to resident needs, (7) Improvement in food quality and the dining environment, (8) Greater family involvement, (9) More homelike environment, and (10) More educational requirements in long term care for initial licensure as a nursing home administrator. Subjects were asked to rank these ten key items as well as to indicate how much should be done to address each item. In addition to the ten items included in the instrument, subjects were also given an opportunity to identify one additional specific concern in long term care. These comments were assembled and presented in the final report. Respondents gave an overall rating to the quality of care in nursing homes at 5.37 on a ten point scale. Consumers ranked care with a low of 2.6, while administrators recorded the highest rating of 6.8. The highest priority ranked item by the survey respondents was more sensitivity by staff to resident needs. The highest priority items were also grouped as structural, process, and educational needs, and analyzed with the following results. The structural item ranked highest in importance by the survey group was the requirement for improved nurse aide to resident ratio. The highest priority ranked process item was more sensitivity by staff to resident needs. Two educational needs emerged with highest priority rankings: the highest ranked was that of more geriatric nursing skills. Management training for all supervisors was ranked slightly lower. When the importance of the ranking of the ten items was contrasted with the desire to take action on each of the ten items, these same items appeared as the major four items to be addressed. The results varied when the rankings of the ten key items were analyzed by region of Texas or by position of the respondent. Consumers, regulators, and directors of nurses agreed that the highest priority of concern was the requirement for improved nurse aide to resident ratio. Owners and administrators believed the highest priority issue to be greater consistency in the survey process. An analysis of the highest ranked issues by region of Texas indicated that the east and west regions agreed that the highest ranked item was more geriatric nursing skills; central and south regions of Texas rated more sensitivity by staff to resident needs at the top rank; and the metropolitan areas of Texas indicated the requirement for improved nurse aide to resident ratio as the highest ranked item.Item Automated Natural Language Evaluators - (ANLE)(1993-12) Kaikhah, KhosrowBy the turn of the century, it is expected that most computer applications will include a natural language processing component. Both developers and consumers of NLP systems have expressed a genuine need for standard natural language system evaluators. Automated natural language evaluators appear to be the only logical solution lo the overwhelming number of NLP systems that have been produced, are being produced, and will be produced. The system developed here is based on the Benchmark Evaluation Tool [7] and is the first attempt to fully automate the evaluation process. This effort was accomplished in two phases. In phase one, we identified a subset of the Benchmark Evaluation Tool for each class of NLP systems. And in phase two, we designed and implemented a natural language generation system to generate non-causal semantically meaningful test sentences. The generation system can be queued for each class of NLP systems. We followed an Object-Oriented Design (OOD) strategy. In this approach all concepts, including semantic and syntactic rules, are defined as objects. Each test sentence is generated as a chain of words satisfying a number of semantic, syntactic, pragmatic, and contextual constraints. The constraints imposed on the generation process increase dynamically while the sentence is being generated. This strategy guarantees semantic cohesiveness while maintaining syntactic integrity. In this approach, syntactic and semantic knowledge were utilized concurrently in word-objects. Each word-object is an independent knowledge source with local knowledge that can decide whether it can be a part of the sentence being generated, when called upon by the sentence-generator to join the chain.Item Bylaws Texas State University MPA Program Advisory Council(2006-07-15) Texas State University, Dept. of Political Science, Public Administration ProgramBylaws of the Texas State University Masters of Public Administration (MPA) Program Advisory Council. This document includes bylaws last amended on July 15, 2006.Item Cenomanian Angiosperm Leaf Megafossils, Dakota Formation, Rose Creek Locality, Jefferson County, Southeastern Nebraska(Dept. of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, 1990-01) Upchurch, Garland R.; Dilcher, David L.The leaves described in this report comprise the first assemblage of early flowering plant leaf megafossils to be accorded formal systematic treatment using modern methods of foliar architecture and cuticular anatomy. The 20 species of dicotyledonous leaves are described from a new locality in the Dakota Formation of Nebraska, near Rose Creek (Rose Creek locality). Seventy percent of the species represent either subclass Magnoliidae or forms with a similar grade of foliar architecture. Among Magnoliidae, species are assignable to the orders Magnoliales and Laurales, and one species shows resemblance to Illiciales. Although three species have strong similarities to one extant family (Lauraceae, or the laurel family), most species of Magnoliidae or magnoliid-grade foliage possess generalized features or combine the characteristics of two or more extant families. One species possesses unique features of foliar architecture that represent an unsuccessful 'experimental" design. Two species of Rosidae are present in the flora, and these combine features of foliar architecture that today are restricted to either compound-leaved or simple-leaved families. The leaves examined in this study show little evidence for fragmentation prior to burial and are preserved in a sequence of rooted mudstones containing brackishwater bivalves (including one specimen in life position); thus, the leaves represent predominantly local, brackish-water vegetation. This indicates that flowering plants evolved the ability to tolerate greater-than-freshwater salinities by the Cenomanian. The vegetation represented by the Rose Creek leaf remains shows few similarities to modern mangrove swamps but instead is most analogous to brackish-water swamps that occur inland from mangrove swamps.Item COVID-19 Impacts on First-Gen Students: Findings from the COVID-19 First-Gen Survey(2020-08) Black, Victoria; Martinez, Gloria P.; Gonzales, SylviaDue to the COVID-19 pandemic which began in the Spring of 2020, the entire TXST community needed to transition to remote learning. As a result, first-gen students faced many challenges in their academic and personal lives. In response, the First-Gen Proud committee sought to understand those obstacles to identify immediate and long-term solutions for first-gen students. The committee decided to conduct an assessment to evaluate how our undergraduate first-gen students were experiencing the unanticipated and rapid move to remote learning. The purpose of this assessment survey is to understand the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has on first-gen students remote learning needs and experiences at Texas State University.Item Culture Change in Long-term Care: Its History and Development, Principles, Implementation and Legislation(2011-09) Seaton, David; Edwards, ChristinaCulture change is the common term used to describe the transformational change many long-term care facilities are beginning to embrace. In this transformation, services provided for elders and individuals with disabilities become person-centered, and the voices of residents and those serving them are considered and respected. The core values of culture change are choice, dignity, respect, self-determination and purposeful living. This monograph describes the history and principles of culture change. It describes the leading organizations in culture change, and discusses the benefits of culture change adoption for a long-term care facility's operations, satisfaction rates, and financial outcomes.Item Culture Change in Texas: A Survey of Practices, Implementation and Legislation in Long-Term Care(2011-09) Seaton, David; Edwards, ChristinaCulture change refers to the national movement that calls for the transformation of long-term care services for elders and individuals with disabilities. Culture change considers and respects the person-centered values of the individual receiving care and the people who provide care to the individual. In Texas, culture change has reached to nursing homes for elders, long-term care settings for individuals with disabilities, and has affected legislation concerning state supported living centers. This monograph discusses culture change adoption in Texas, organizations that support culture change, and legislation involving culture change and Texas' State Supported Living Centers for individuals with disabilities.Item Drone Surveys Do Not Increase Colony-wide Flight Behaviour at Waterbird Nesting Sites, But Sensitivity Varies Among Species(Nature Research, 2020-01) Barr, Jared R.; Green, M. Clay; DeMaso, Stephen J.; Hardy, Thomas B.The popularity of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to survey colonial waterbirds has increased in the past decade, but disturbance associated with this bourgeoning technology requires further study. Disturbance was investigated by conducting aerial surveys with a consumer-grade quadcopter (DJI Phantom 3), while concurrently recording behavioural reactions on video. Surveys of mixed-species waterbird colonies (1-6 species per colony) were flown in horizontal transects at heights of 122, 91, 61, and 46 m, which is a typical range for collecting aerial imagery and producing high-resolution mosaicked orthophotos of nesting bird sites. An upper limit of 122 m was used due to local regulations prohibiting higher-altitude flights without federal authorization. Behavioural reactions were tallied every minute and a disturbance score was calculated for each sampling period. When compared to control periods, we found no evidence that colony-wide escape (i.e., flight) behaviour increased during drone flights, at any altitude flown. However, disturbance score increased significantly by 53% for surveys at 46 m. Some species were more sensitive to surveys than others. Laughing Gulls, in particular, exhibited a significant (125%) increase in escape behaviour for surveys at 91 m. Our results indicate when used in a capacity to gather high-resolution imagery for estimating breeding pairs, UAV surveys affected some species more than others, but severe reactions did not appear to increase for mixed-species colonies as a whole. Further study on safe operating thresholds is essential, especially at local and regional scales.Item Economic Base: San Marcos, Hays County, Texas (1959-1971)(Southwest Texas State University, 1972-01) Savage, V. Howard; Morgan, Celia A.; Yeargan, Howard R.No abstract prepared.Item Eden Alternative: The Texas Project(2000-05) Ransom, SandyLoneliness, helplessness, and boredom dominate the lives of many nursing home residents. Even though many regulations and programs are in place that are intended to assure quality of care, the confines of the nursing home environment and the widespread entrenchment of the "medical model" do not necessarily contribute to quality of life. Even the most modern and beautifully designed nursing homes sometimes seem to be pervaded with sterile overtones and lack the true warmth of a home. The Eden Alternative, a conceptual model developed by William H. Thomas, M.D., places the residents at the center of nursing home life. The nursing home is transformed into a "human habitat", an environment of diversity. Animals, plants and gardens, children and people of all ages form an integral, daily part of resident life. Residents regain a sense of worth as they care for the plants and animals and they share daily activities with the children as well as with each other. The management style is converted from a hierarchical model to a prototype in which decisions are moved closer to the residents. Staff members are empowered to form self-directed work teams and to take responsibility for managing their own work schedules. The Texas Eden Alternative project replicated Dr. Thomas' model in a different geographical location with a larger sample size. A multidisciplinary task force developed new instruments, recruited individuals willing to develop the Eden Alternative in their communities, and collected data. Resident and staff variables, which are known to influence the satisfaction and quality of life, were carefully gathered over a two-year time period. Although not all of Dr. Thomas' findings were validated in the Texas study, other outcomes showed promising trends. Both cumulative findings and results at specific individual homes have implications for continued research and future policy decisions.Item Education in Gerontology in Texas Schools of Social Work(1996-02) Murray, YvetteWill the supply of social workers trained in gerontology meet the increasing demand for social services from the elderly population? The research study evaluates the present situation concerning formal education in gerontology in Texas schools of social work. Questionnaires were mailed to all accredited undergraduate and graduate programs, plus three new, nonaccredited graduate programs. Follow up telephone calls produced a 100% response rate from the research population. The results of the survey indicated that the majority of undergraduate programs use field settings involving the elderly, but less than half of these programs offer specific courses in aging. All accredited graduate programs have courses and field practicums in aging; however, only one program offers a specialization for advanced study in gerontology. None of the new graduate programs have courses or specializations in aging. When social work students do enter field internships in agencies which serve the elderly, they generally do not receive stipends. Of the of 25 undergraduate and seven graduate programs surveyed, only one social work program had more than one stipend available annually.Item Educational Programming for Pupils with Neurologically Based Language Disorders: Final Report(1968-12-31) Zedler, Empress YoungTo investigate procedures whereby schools may achieve maximal results with otherwise normal underachieving pupils with neurologically based language-learning disorders, 100 such subjects were studied over a 2-year period. Fifty experimental subjects remained in regular classes in school and received individualized teaching outside of school hours from specially trained clinicians. Fifty matched control subjects were enrolled in special education classes and did not receive clinical teaching after school. Half of the experimental and half of the control subjects had anti convulsive medication prescribed by their physicians; the others did not. Tests of academic achievement and mental functioning indicated that the experimental groups made significantly greater gains in both variables than did the control. However, the medicated groups did not make greater gains than the unmedicated.Item Electronic Journals Access at Alkek Library, Texas State University-San Marcos(2005-10) Khosh-khui, Sam AbolghasemThe author shares the actions taken at the Alkek Library, Texas State University-San Marcos, to provide efficient access to journal resources in all formats. Actions include creation of journal databases, linking URLs on bibliographic records with the corresponding URLs in the subscribed electronic journals database through Journal ID numbers, and development of a specialized search engine to search by a variety of search keys three different databases: 1) Subscribed electronic journals collections, 2) electronic journals in full-text databases, and 3) printed/microform journals.
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