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  SOCIO-POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS IN PHYSICIAN CULTURAL COMPETENCE AND LATINO CROSS-BORDER HEALTH CARE UTILIZATION: A REVIEW OF THE CURRENT LITERATURE

  Sanchez, Lisa; Damore, Victoria (The University of Arizona., 2020-05)

  This paper examines the manner in which socio-political climate, primarily the stigmatization of immigrants, impacts health outcomes and the prevalence of cross-border healthcare utilization for Latinos in the United States. Stigma stemming from public support for immigration reform has implications in Latino health at the structural, interpersonal, and individual level. The harmful attitudes lead to overt discrimination and implicit personal biases that affect the ability of physicians to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS). Previous studies on Latino health experiences indicate that a multitude of interrelated factors influence the decision to receive healthcare in Mexico, including dissatisfaction of care and language proficiency, but no direct connection has been made to interpersonal discrimination or cultural incompetence. Cultural competence education for physicians that involves political awareness is one positive step towards improving disparities in the U.S. healthcare system (Tervalon and Murray-García 1998; Evans 1992).
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  BEST PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS IN NURSING TO ADDRESS HEALTHCARE BARRIERS AFFECTING REFUGEE POPULATIONS

  Goldsmith, Melissa; Dela Cruz, Regina (The University of Arizona., 2020-05)

  Refugee health in the southwest United States is a significantly understudied subject (Morris, Popper, Rodwell, Brodine, & Brouwer, 2009). Limited information is known about the health needs of the diverse refugee groups residing in the region beyond the initial health assessments conducted upon entering the country for resettlement. This paper will focus on healthcare accessibility in the United States for individuals under refugee statuswith access to government aid and temporary healthcare coverage through the Office of Refugee Resettlement. This paper explores the most current research identifying healthcare barriers among refugee populations throughout the United States in an effort to formulate best practice recommendations to address the Central American refugee population residing in Tucson, Arizona. Analysis revealed a wide range of existing barriers, including language and communication, acculturation, and unmet mental health needs. Many of these barriers are interrelated and jointly reflect larger health system issues and poor health outcomes in the short-and long-term. The articles examined address existing barriers and ongoing interventions that aim to mitigate disparities for this population. This paper will address recommendations for the nursing profession to help reduce barriers, address gaps in care, and improve health for resettled refugees. In addition to the review of current literature, this paper will identify best-practice recommendations, a plan proposal for implementation of a community-based promotores teaching program, and a proposal to evaluate the implementation process.
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  RELIEVING THE BURDEN FROM CAREGIVERS OF PATIENTS WITH DEMENTIA

  Goldsmith, Melissa; Delamater, Rachel (The University of Arizona., 2020-05)

  A predominant concern in nursing is the immense burden that can be felt by those who care for dementia patients, whether it is hospital staff, family members, or care home staff. The thesis will take the form of a research-based paper, and the research will be obtained from multiple databases as needed, such as CINAHL and PubMed. After having extensively researched and obtained background on the topic in general, this research will differ from previous research because of the comprehensive nature of it. While other authors have touched on particular aspects of caregiver burden, none have developed complete best-practice guidelines to be implemented by health care professionals. This thesis will discuss background and purpose in the first chapter, search method and review of literature in the second chapter, best practice recommendations in the third chapter, and methods of implementation in the fourth chapter. Overall, the thesis will address what caregiver burden is, the causes and factors impacting it, negative outcomes from it, and potential interventions to implement in the clinical setting.
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  TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE TRIAL MECHANISMS AND AUTHORITARIANISM: DOMESTIC, INTERNATIONAL, AND HYBRID TRIAL MECHANISMS AND POTENTIAL LINKS TO INCREASES IN AUTHORITARIANISM IN TRANSITIONING STATES

  Maves Braithwaite, Jessica; DeMers, Tyler (The University of Arizona., 2020-05)

  This paper will conduct a review of the field of transitional justice, with a focus on reviewing trial mechanisms at the local, national, and international levels in Rwanda, as well as in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This thesis seeks to understand if authoritarianism is linked to certain transitional justice mechanisms, specifically trial mechanisms. First, a literature review is conducted that reviews the academic literature of the field of transitional justice, trial mechanisms, and authoritarianism as well as relevant UN resolutions and publications, and international law and human rights civil society organizations publications. Then, an empirical evaluation will be conducted that examines the relationship between transitional justice mechanisms, and the level of authoritarianism and rule of law within states, as measured by the Polyarchy and Rule of Law Indices from Coppedge et.al (2019) Varieties of Democracy Dataset and the Binningsbø et al (2012) Post Conflict Justice Dataset.. This will then be compared between states in the trial mechanism group that underwent similar trial mechanisms, as well as between those states and Rwanda. The results of this thesis did not support two out of three hypotheses, specifically that domestic trial mechanisms lead to increased authoritarianism and that hybrid trial mechanisms lead to decreased authoritarianism. One hypothesis was upheld by the results of this thesis, that international trial mechanisms nave no discernable effect on the Rule of Law or Polyarchy indices for countries.
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  RECYCLED WASTE PLASTICS AS BUILDING MATERIAL FOR LOW-COST SHELTERS

  Brush, Adrianna; Curradi, Nicholas (The University of Arizona., 2020-05)

  Executive Summary: This project aims to divert plastic waste and recycle it into building materials. The end product is lightweight, cost effective, and durable while still being an effective thermal insulator. The process designed in this report can create building materials from waste plastics that can be utilized to build homes for low-income communities and victims of natural disasters. During the duration of this project, creating a prototype and finalizing an end product preceded the design of the process. The prototyping phase consisted of collecting three types of plastics, type 1 (PETE), type 2 (HDPE), and type 5 (PP). The plastics were then agitated with soap and water to get a clean material, air dried, and tested using two different heat sources, an iron and convection toaster oven. Four different experimental setups utilizing these two different heat sources were conducted. Inside these two sources, temperature and pressure were tracked and noted per experiment. Using the experimental results, a process was designed. Many conclusions were drawn from the results of this design. Based on the prototyping done by the team, it was determined that a mass ratio of 1:2:1 of PETE, HDPE, and PP plastics was ideal for forming a brick. It was also concluded that the ideal size for these bricks was 6” x 12” x 3.75”. This allows for a large enough volume to reduce the amount of bricks required to construct a strong structure but is not so large that it is extremely heavy. There are square protrusions of 3.85” x 3.85” x 1.07” on the top and indentations on the bottom of the brick of the same dimensions. These protrusions and indentations allow for bricks to interlock and easily snap together to form walls and corners. A semi-batch process proved to be the best way to operate a plant for this process, which sorts, cleans, and shreds the plastic before forming the end product. The process proved to be economically feasible with an annual profit of over $600,000. There is still some uncertainty in the end product design. This is due mostly to a halt in prototyping due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the process design is based off of what the team was able to accomplish prior to the pandemic. There are three major assumptions in the design of this process. First, it is assumed that there is a market for our product stemming from an ​increased​ frequency of natural disasters. The second assumption is that the plant is able to obtain the used plastics for the process for free which would likely come from a local recycling center. Finally, an assumption that there is enough plastic and market to warrant running the plant continuously as a semi-batch process. Another major uncertainty lies with how much of each compound is released in the vapor fumes and further testing for this parameter is highly recommended. However, this project can be economically feasible given the current run conditions and assumptions. It is recommended that this process move forward after further prototyping is done and more is understood about the compounds present in fumes.

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