Contraceptive Perspectives in Nursing students

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Description
Contraceptives are a vital part of reproductive care by preventing unwanted pregnancy, providing relief to premenstrual syndrome or PMS symptoms, and more. Birth control has been around for many centuries and has given women autonomy over their reproductive health. The…

Contraceptives are a vital part of reproductive care by preventing unwanted pregnancy, providing relief to premenstrual syndrome or PMS symptoms, and more. Birth control has been around for many centuries and has given women autonomy over their reproductive health. The Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court case in 1965 was the first ruling that made birth control accessible to the public under the law. However, this ruling only pertained only to married couples until the Eisenstadt v. Baird case in 1972. That case gave single women the ability to legally purchase contraceptives for themselves. In the decades since those rulings, many laws and policies have been put into place to give those in lower-income areas the ability to purchase contraceptives as well. With this increase in accessibility, those who use contraceptives, or are thinking of starting birth control, need to understand how to use it, when to use it, and the effects of using contraceptives. In the United States, nurses outnumber doctors by a 4:1 ratio and spend more time with patients than anyone else in a clinic or hospital environment. Nurses, being the main healthcare providers with whom a patient will interact, often are the ones patients ask questions about care and overall advice. Nurses must be able to relay valuable information about treatments or medicines, such as birth control, and give accurate information on the effects such treatments have. Nursing students need to be prepared. However, the amount of information provided, and opinions given might be affected by their nursing education, past experiences with birth control, and more. This project surveys nursing students at Arizona State University on their attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs towards birth control interventions, and how their individual experiences and education influence these perceptions.
Date Created
2024
Agent

No Choice but to Choose: The Technopolitics of Informed Consent

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Description
Informed Consent is a ubiquitous way of enshrining choice in the United States which regulates social relations in domains as varied as health, research, access to institutions, and prisons. Informed consent describes an imagined epistemic relationship between right knowledge and…

Informed Consent is a ubiquitous way of enshrining choice in the United States which regulates social relations in domains as varied as health, research, access to institutions, and prisons. Informed consent describes an imagined epistemic relationship between right knowledge and legitimate choice, where judgements of capacitation determine whether a person is the right sort of person to take up knowledge which will render them agential under conditions of asymmetrical power. It has been developed over and over to solve problems of injustice, where the injustice in question is understood in terms of undue infringement on individual autonomy, and the logic of informed consent is re-invented to reframe the problem at hand as a rightful matter of individual choice. It is imagined to respect autonomy, and to perform a transformative "moral magic" that makes the forbidden quotidian. This dissertation develops this account of informed consent through a series of cases, each of which explicates different aspects of the technopolitics of informed consent. It begins with genetic counseling as a paradigm case in the logic of informed consent: a well-developed field that emerged to inform people about genetics and genomics in the interest not only of individual reproductive choice, but in opposition to eugenic shaping of populations through genetic knowledge. Next, pro- and anti- abortion deployments of informed consent illustrate an epistemology of information itself, which is understood to agentialize as well as to serve as a site for refusing choice to those deemed incapacitated. Third, liability waivers and requests for student informed consent on university campuses during the pandemic show informed consent to be a tool for the exercise of biopolitics and, in particular, for making responsible subjects. Finally, civil libertarian opposition to migrant genetic testing on the grounds that migrants weren’t asked for consent demonstrates a tight coupling between consent, imaginations of just state-subject relations, and what it means to be recognized as a person. Ultimately, this dissertation argues for a practice of attention that sees informed consent as an important site for the exercise of power and offers frameworks for analyzing it as such.
Date Created
2023
Agent

Respect and Dignity in Wildlife Rehabilitation

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Description
Wildlife rehabilitation as a practice in the United States exists in a complicated ethical landscape. The Wildlife Rehabilitator's Code of Ethics exists to guide the profession and states that rehabilitators must respect the wildness and maintain the dignity of an…

Wildlife rehabilitation as a practice in the United States exists in a complicated ethical landscape. The Wildlife Rehabilitator's Code of Ethics exists to guide the profession and states that rehabilitators must respect the wildness and maintain the dignity of an animal in their care. This thesis explores the question: How do the attitudes and actions of wildlife rehabilitators exemplify the ways in which they understand and enact respect for an animal’s dignity and wildness while in their care? Additionally, in what circumstances do rehabilitators align and diverge from each other in their interpretation and demonstration of this respect? These questions were answered through a literature review, interviews with rehabilitators, and site visits to wildlife rehabilitation centers in the Phoenix metropolitan area. My results suggest that rehabilitators are aligned in their understanding of respect for wildness and dignity as it applies to the animals in their care that are actively undergoing rehabilitation. Rehabilitators achieved consensus on the idea that they should interact with the animals as little as possible while providing their medically necessary care. Rehabilitators began to diverge when considering the animals in their sanctuary spaces. Specifically, they varied in their perception of wildness in sanctuary animals, which informed how some saw their responsibilities to the animals. Lesser perceived wildness correlated to increased acceptance of forming affectionate relationships with the sanctuary animals, and even feelings of obligation to form these relationships. Based on my research, I argue that the Wildlife Rehabilitator's Code of Ethics should be revised to reflect the specific boundary that wildlife rehabilitators identified in the rehabilitation space and provide substantive guidance as to what respecting wildness and dignity means in this field.
Date Created
2023
Agent

Identity Development During Adolescence in Individuals with Pectus Excavatum

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Description
For my graduate thesis, I present an annotated bibliography that evaluates and summarizes a list of resources available for use in future research. The resources focus on how pectus excavatum, a congenital birth anomaly affecting the thoracic wall, may impact…

For my graduate thesis, I present an annotated bibliography that evaluates and summarizes a list of resources available for use in future research. The resources focus on how pectus excavatum, a congenital birth anomaly affecting the thoracic wall, may impact identity formation and subsequent behavior during a period characterized by significant physical and psychological development, from the ages 12 to 18, known as adolescence. I examine resources that specifically look at congenital birth anomalies, pectus excavatum, developmental psychology, psychoanalysis, and identity crises. The following provides background and an annotated bibliography to establish whether there is a causal relationship between individuals born with congenital birth anomalies, specifically pectus excavatum (PE), and the impact it has to identity development during adolescence. This work is important to me because I was born with pectus excavatum, and I believe a causal relationship does exist. While I claim the causal relationship does exist, I should note this is conjecture and anecdotally based on 7 years of interacting with patients in both a clinical and personal setting. The conversations are reflective of discussions that have taken place about having been born with pectus excavatum and how the condition has impacted our lives.
Date Created
2023
Agent

Reducing Abortion Rates Without Restricting Legal Access to Abortion: Evidence from Comparative Analysis of Relevant Policies and Demographic Indicators in 15 Post-Soviet Countries and Adaptive Agent-Based Modeling of Unintended Pregnancies

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Description
Abortion is a controversial topic internationally. Most current debates about abortion concern when, if at all, it should be legal. However, researchers have shown many times that after an abortion ban, maternal and infant mortalities rise significantly, as women who…

Abortion is a controversial topic internationally. Most current debates about abortion concern when, if at all, it should be legal. However, researchers have shown many times that after an abortion ban, maternal and infant mortalities rise significantly, as women who seek out abortions do so regardless of abortion legality. So, is it possible to reduce abortions in a population without delegalizing abortion and, if so, how? Why do some countries have higher abortion rates than others in the presence of the same law?This dissertation answers both questions. First, I present historical evidence in the first comprehensive comparative analysis of all 15 post-Soviet countries, which have very similar abortion laws originating from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Second, I use those findings to build the first agent-based model (ABM) of unintended pregnancies in a hypothetical artificial population. USSR was the only country in the world to complete its demographic transition through abortion instead of modern contraception, and the Soviet government passed the first law in the world to allow abortion upon request in 1920. After the USSR dissolution in 1991, post-Soviet countries maintained very similar abortion laws, but had very different abortion rates for most years. Analysis of fertility data from post-Soviet countries shows that the prevalence of some specific contraceptive methods, namely the rhythm method (r = 0.82), oral pill (r = 0.56), and male condom (r = 0.51) are most strongly correlated with high abortion rates, and that sex education is a factor that reduces the rates in otherwise similar countries (p = 0.02). The ABM shows that even basic sex education results in fewer abortions than no sex education or abstinence-based sex education (p < 0.01). In scenarios without sex education, basic quality of post-abortion contraceptive counseling (PACC) is better than no PACC or low-quality PACC at reducing abortions (p < 0.01). Still, the higher the quality of sex education or PACC, the fewer abortions in the artificial population. The ABM is adaptive and policy makers can use it as a decision-support tool to make evidence-based policy decisions regarding abortion, and, potentially, other sociobiological phenomena with some adjustments to the code.
Date Created
2023
Agent

An Analysis of the Ethical and Functional Perspectives Regarding Sex Inclusive Research

Description

The basic goal of preclinical animal research is to improve understanding of human disease and treatment. Mandates for sex-inclusive research – both in preclinical animal work and in human clinical trials – have prompted discussions about the ethics and functionality…

The basic goal of preclinical animal research is to improve understanding of human disease and treatment. Mandates for sex-inclusive research – both in preclinical animal work and in human clinical trials – have prompted discussions about the ethics and functionality of sex-inclusive research. Authors of peer review research articles and opinion pieces have varying opinions regarding sex-inclusive preclinical animals research. The arguments that support sex inclusion in animal research include: a) sex inclusive research in the preclinical animal model stage saves money further down the road in research, b) new understanding in hormonal variation in both male and female mice undercuts a notion that male mice are simpler research subjects, and c) sex-inclusive research is needed for improved treatment and diagnosis for male and female humans down the road. Arguments against inclusive research include: a) increased research cost and time, and b) sex-inclusive preclinical animal research is not useful, and may be harmful, to the development of personalized medicine. Weighing the different arguments present in the conversation regarding sex inclusive research, sex inclusive research is clearly important and necessary moving forward for cost efficiency, scientific discovery, and movement towards precision medicine.

Date Created
2023-05
Agent

The Impacts of COVID on Arizona’s Management of Telemedicine-Prescribed Controlled Substances and Impacts on General Substance Use

Description

This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on telemedicine-prescribed controlled substances by discussing the opinions of pharmacists holding an Arizona pharmacy license. To accommodate the rapid changes during the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government adapted pharmacy laws to…

This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on telemedicine-prescribed controlled substances by discussing the opinions of pharmacists holding an Arizona pharmacy license. To accommodate the rapid changes during the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government adapted pharmacy laws to better support the healthcare community. The use of remote healthcare services such as telemedicine visits and online pharmacy services dramatically increased during the pandemic, so regulators waived tele-health restrictions like the Ryan Haight Act. This study involved structured interviews with 3 participants. The interviews revealed a positive outlook on the future of telehealth and the possibilities of modernizing healthcare and pharmacy. The study suggests that the waiving of the Ryan Haight Act was perceived somewhat positively by pharmacists, although they still had concerns regarding abandoning parts of the Act from a patient safety standpoint. The study concludes that certain pharmacy and telemedicine regulations are outdated given the positive and negative outcomes of these laws during the global pandemic. While this study offers insights on bringing various healthcare and law arguments together, the small sample size results in limited scope. The study still provides points of discussion to offer recommendations for implementation of the Ryan Haight Act and other similar tele-health and online-pharmacy regulations.

Date Created
2023-05
Agent

Parceling the Wild: Stewardship and Conservation in the 21st Century National Wilderness Preservation System

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Description
The National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) is a collection of more than 800 areas designated as wilderness under the Wilderness Act of 1964. The Act defines wilderness as an “area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled…

The National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) is a collection of more than 800 areas designated as wilderness under the Wilderness Act of 1964. The Act defines wilderness as an “area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” Wilderness lands are supposed to be pristine examples of nature where the overseeing agency has not allowed any post-designation development. The language of the act describes land designated as wilderness as “untrammeled” by people, discounting thousands of years of human influence. It also discounts the potential effect of surrounding lands and visitors on the wilderness. The management of these lands falls to all four federal land management agencies, and they each had – and still have – their own organizational perspectives on the Wilderness Act and their agency’s role in its implementation. Although the Act provided criteria for designating and managing wilderness, concrete guidance is lacking. This ambiguity has allowed a rift to emerge between those who believe that wilderness should be actively managed and those who believe that wilderness should be preserved and left alone as much as possible. The diversity of views and agency approaches have created administrative divides between wilderness lands and other land types. In parallel, the introduction of subsequent environmental laws have placed additional legal boundaries on the land, creating parcels next to and within wilderness that are subject to different uses and requirements. This study, which marshals dozens of expert interviews and explores a series of wilderness cases across the United States, focuses on several unanticipated challenges of stewarding the NWPS in the 21st Century. These include: the impacts of public land parceling due to legal obligations; how statuary ossification affects current interpretations of the various laws bearing on wilderness lands; and ultimately how land managers and agencies – who are looking toward a future of increased anthropogenic impacts on wildlife biodiversity and endangered/threatened species on wilderness lands – approach these challenges.
Date Created
2022
Agent

Murdering and Murderable Minds Experiments and Remarks on the Psychology of Moral Status

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Description
Moral status questions, (who and what counts morally) are of central concern to moral philosophers. There is also a rich history of psychological work exploring the topic. The received view in psychology of moral status accounts for it as a…

Moral status questions, (who and what counts morally) are of central concern to moral philosophers. There is also a rich history of psychological work exploring the topic. The received view in psychology of moral status accounts for it as a function of other mind perception. On this view, entities are morally considerable because they are perceived to have the right sort of minds. This dissertation analyzes and tests this theory, pointing out both empirical and conceptual issues with the received view. The results presented show that important moral intuitions (for example about unjustifiable interpersonal killing) cannot be explained by appealing to other mind perception. Some alternative views of the psychology of moral status are presented, as well as avenues for further research.
Date Created
2022
Agent

The Pursuit of Parenthood: Expanding Horizons of Reproductive Physiology and Assisted Reproductive Technologies

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Description
The desire to start a family is something millions of people around the globe strive to achieve. However, many factors such as the societal changes in family planning due to increasing maternal age, use of birth control, and ever-changing lifestyles…

The desire to start a family is something millions of people around the globe strive to achieve. However, many factors such as the societal changes in family planning due to increasing maternal age, use of birth control, and ever-changing lifestyles have increased the number of infertility cases seen in the United States each year. Infertility can manifest as a prolonged inability to conceive, or inability to carry a pregnancy full-term. Modern advancements in the field of reproductive medicine have begun to promote the use of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) to circumvent reduced fertility in both men and women. Implementation of techniques such as In Vitro Fertilization, Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection, and Pre-Implantation Genetic Testing have allowed many couples to conceive. There is continual effort being made towards developing more effective and personalized fertility treatments. This often begins in the form of animal research—a fundamental step in biomedical research. This dissertation examines infertility as a medical condition through the characterization of normal reproductive anatomy and physiology in the introductory overview of reproduction. Specific pathologies of male and female-factor infertility are described, which necessitates the use of ARTs. The various forms of ARTs currently utilized in a clinical setting are addressed including history, preparations, and protocols for each technology. To promote continual advancement of the field, both animal studies and human trials provide fundamental stepping-stones towards the execution of new techniques and protocols. Examples of research conducted for the betterment of human reproductive medicine are explored, including an animal study conducted in mice exploring the role of tyramine in ovulation. With the development and implementation of new technologies and protocols in the field, this also unearths ethical dilemmas that further complicate the addition of new technologies in the field. Combining an extensive review in assisted reproduction, research and clinical fieldwork, this study investigates the history and development of novel research conducted in reproductive medicine and explores the broader implications of new technologies in the field.
Date Created
2021
Agent
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