Thesis
Drexel University community-based master's project: StudentsCare Hospital Buddy Program
Master of Public Health (M.P.H.), Drexel University
11 Jun 2018
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/D8F66S
Abstract
Psychosocial can relate to how individuals use their personal experiences to structure how they create new perspectives, coping with situations, and problem-solving. The term psychosocial pertains to the relation of the intertwining of social factors and individual thought and behavior (Dictionary). There are approximately 40,000 children across the world that are diagnosed and make the decision to undergo cancer treatment (Cure Search). The American Psychological Association (APA) reports that every year 9,000 new children are diagnosed with cancer (American Psychological Association). StudentsCare, a non-profit organization, focuses on improving the overall hospital experience for pediatric residents by supporting their psychosocial needs and care. StudentsCare incorporates a subsection of their organization, the Hospital Buddy Program, to help create an environment promoting compassion and emotional support for patients. In this study, we assessed ways that StudentsCare could be able to achieve improvement in hospital ratings, patient health outcomes, and empathy-related care. This was done through the identification of the various themes and knowledge for program need, impact, and empathy-related care. Program impact is the general understanding of the importance of psychosocial support services and the positive influence that they serve to patients and their families. Empathy-related care incorporates compassion and a deeper understanding of one and what strategies can be put in place to increase ones over wellbeing. To incorporate these mechanisms to improve psychosocial services, we've concluded findings in research to extend current data collection tools and the development of patient/parent satisfactory surveys to measure short and long-term goals. The logic model provided by StudentsCare showed an overview of their goals and mission to ultimately reach their impact goal of improving the hospital experience for pediatric oncology patients and their families. Stakeholders such as patients, parents, and volunteers are a measure to ensure that their needs are being met. Throughout this study, we found some barriers in the research included limited research topic, relying on quantitative survey methodology, limited volunteer psychosocial programs, and possible self-reporting bias.
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Details
- Title
- Drexel University community-based master's project
- Creators
- Chelise Junior - DU
- Contributors
- Philip Massey (Advisor) - Drexel University (1970-)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Master of Public Health (M.P.H.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- 21 pages
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Dana and David Dornsife School of Public Health; Community Health and Prevention; Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 8011; 991014632843604721