RCHC Community Project Abstracts

Back to subject search page or search by preceptor site Non-Medical Exemptions to Immunization in Josephine County, OR Project Date: 6/29/2009 Religious and personal-belief exemptions to mandatory childhood vaccinations are increasing in states across the country with Oregon having the fourth highest overall rate. Within Oregon, Josephine County regularly ranks near the top in terms of annual "religious" exemptions to immunization. Oregon's process for attaining an exemption is easier than in most states. While Oregon does not have a "personal belief" exemption, state law defines "religion" broadly as "any system of beliefs, practices or ethical values." In this study, I looked at rates of religious exemptions within Josephine County as well as factors associated with "vaccine hesitancy". I found that vaccine-hesitant and non-hesitant parents did not differ in terms of engagement in religious or other groups. Vaccine-hesitant parents, however, were significantly more likely to use friends or the internet as sources of vaccine information but significantly less likely to use health-care providers. This student emphasizes the importance of outreach by health-care providers to vaccine-hesitant communities and stresses the importance of crafting firm but constitutional laws mandating childhood vaccines. Japanese Healing Gardens Project Date: 8/9/2004 The negative effects of stress and anxiety have been well documented in past research and effect psychological, physiological, and behavioral health. Many find hospitals to be complex, confusing, and anxiety-inducing environments, imparting a sterile, institutional vibe to patients and staff. This observation has led architects, psychiatrists, neuroscientists, and health care workers to collaborate on a movement behind “evidence based design.” They promote their research findings that show that environment does effect health, and changes in hospital design can be followed by improved patient outcomes and increased staff satisfaction. As stress and anxiety levels fall, patients and staff feel and do better. A leading investigator in the field, Roger Ulrich, found that positive distractions, such as nature, are especially helpful. He found that patients recovering from surgery with a window view of nature have shorter recovery times, request decreased dose and strength of pain medication, and have fewer post-op complications. Incorporating nature into hospital design has also been shown to improve staff satisfaction and staff turnover, attract more patients, and increase charitable donations. Lebanon Community Hospital is currently in the midst of construction of a Japanese Healing Garden. Many patients and staff are uncertain as to the purpose and usefulness of such an undertaking at a time when resources are in short supply. Thus, I decided to focus my community –oriented primary care project on investigating the topic of healing gardens, including the evidence behind constructing healing gardens in healthcare settings and measurable patient outcomes. Japanese gardens are specifically addressed, and the symbolism involved, in order to more fully explain the components of the LCH garden. Lastly, a few suggestions are made to avoid problems encountered by other facilities, as well as an effort to generate ideas for a research project to monitor the effect of the healing garden on patient and staff. Spiritual Involvement and Belief Survey: Reedsport, Oregon Project Date: 9/23/2002 The town of Reedsport, Oregon contains a family health clinic, a medical clinic, and a hospice. There are nine medical providers and nine hospice & homehealth nurses who serve approximately 9,200 people (beyond the 4,400 in Reedsport). The Spiritual Involvement and Beliefs Scale (Hatch, 1998) was utilized with additional questions to assess: 1) the level of spirituality between patients and providers, 2) whether patients desired more physician or hospice nurse inquiry into spiritual matters, and 3) whether the providers desired more information on ways to discuss spirituality with their patients. Sixty-one clinic patients and one of three hospice patients completed the voluntary survey along with 8 of the 9 medical providers and 6 of the 9 nurses. There was no difference in the level of spirituality between the patients and medical providers (T-test, p < 0.32), nor between the medical providers and nurses (T-test, p < 0.45). Nineteen of sixty-one clinic patients (31%) desired more physician inquiry into spiritual matters, while over two-thirds did not. The former wanted discussion on “positive thinking” ( N = 4), “prayer” (3), the “mind/body connection” (3), and more specific requests such as a referral for spiritual counseling. These patients prayed with greater frequency (T-test, p < .05) and participated in more spiritual activities (T-test, p < .05) that the latter group of patients. Due to the small sample size, no analysis was performed between the single hospice patient and the nurses. The providers varied in their desire for more information on ways to inquire. Only two of the eight medical providers (25%) who completed the survey wanted more information, while four of the six (66%) nurses desired the information. Back to subject search page or search by preceptor site