Burnout Syndrome an Occupational Hazard for Nurses

Erika Sterling, Nursing Undergraduate Student

College of Professional Studies

Burnout syndrome is an occupational hazard that can affect healthcare professionals, especially bedside nurses that work in a hospital setting. It is comprised of three main components; emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced professional efficacy. It occurs when healthcare workers experience chronic stress. It can lead to mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and PTSD. It negatively affects patient outcomes and patient satisfaction. It also increases nurse turnover which results in understaffing, therefore affecting patient safety. Improving working conditions for nurses, education and quality leadership will help decrease the prevalence of burnout syndrome.

Cal Poly Humboldt 3D Digital Herbarium

AJ Bealum, Computer Science Staff

Library

The Cal Poly Humboldt 3D Digital Herbarium improves upon current digital herbaria by incorporating 3D models of flora in addition to images of specimens from physical herbariums. These annotated models in addition to a social component implemented with the integration of iNaturalist make for the most immersive, fun and memorable experience of any digital herbarium out there.

Climate, Competition, and Cavity-nesters, oh my!

Kellie Crouch, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Fluctuations in climate variables, such as temperature and precipitation, have the ability to negatively influence the breeding success of birds. This study aimed to determine how these factors impact the breeding success of cavity-nesting songbirds in California. In order to do this, I analyzed relationships between nest box data from the California Bluebird Recovery Program and climate data from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Community Brochure for Open Door Community Health Centers

Andrea Jones, Social Work Graduate Student

College of Professional Studies

My research focuses on community access to cultural and crisis resources, through networking with community health centers. My brochure will help reach a boarder population throughout Humboldt and Del Norte counties on educating and advocating for families about health services offered at their local clinic site. While Open Door struggles to retain staff, and providers, its important for the community to have additional access to other resources that are not quite at capacity. This will support small organizations that focus on cultural and diverse practices, as well as acknowledge Indigenous people by having others support and give back through their honor tax.

Community Youth Center Capacity Building

John Evans, Social Work Graduate Student

College of Professional Studies

Dream Quest (DQ) is a youth center in Willow Creek, CA that provides positive youth development opportunities to the communities of Eastern Humboldt County and Western Trinity County. DQ is currently planning for an expansion into a new purpose built building which will extend DQ’s capacity to positively impact the community. Along with facilities expansion, DQ is planning to expand the capacity of its staff and programming, including the continual improvement of youth outcomes. DQ requested my assistance to collaborate in an effort to uncover knowledge around program evaluation and the experience of families involved with DQ.

Comparing Passerine Presence in an Urban College Town to a Nearby Rural Marsh Sanctuary

Jocelyn Lucente, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

With an ever-increasing push for urbanization, it is necessary to monitor the passerine's ability to tolerate increased anthropogenesis and ensure their persistence among changing habitats. Arcata, California is home to both a lively college campus (CPH) and a restored wildlife sanctuary (AMWS), offering ideally contrasting study sites to sample at. In order to determine if urbanization is affecting the birds’ occupancy, I will conduct a total of 30 point-counts at 15 urban and 15 rural sites to compare the number of individual passerines across land types. I hypothesize to detect a higher abundance of passerines throughout the rural settings.

Comparing Salamander Activity Through Temperature Humidity and Rain

William Jones, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

In this project I measured changes in the level of salamander activity based upon the local temperature, humidity, and the presence of rain in the Arcata community forest behind Cal. Poly. Humboldt.

Connecting Communities: Education and Resources for Humboldt County, California

Joseph Meihak, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

We created a website to promote ethical awareness and responsibility among the Cal Poly Humboldt community. The recent housing decisions have raised ethical concerns, and our website offers resources for housing, transportation, mental health, and local community services. We believe that these issues, such as food and housing insecurities and environmental impacts like pollution and resource scarcity, are interconnected. Our website aims to provide necessary resources to help address these issues and promote environmental consciousness.

Cultural Fire Behavior and Effects on Hazel Shrubs

Thomas Paulson, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Prescribed fire is a widely used land management technique that accomplishes many important cultural and ecological benefits to people and wildlife. Since 1935, wildfires have been suppressed and prescribed fires have been largely removed from the landscape. This has led to the loss of important cultural practices conducted by tribes in the Klamath Mountains. Prescribed fire is particularly useful for producing hazel plants that are optimal for basket weaving material used by the Karuk tribe. The goal of this study is to develop an allometric equation to quantify the relationship between hazel height and basal diameter and look into fire effects interactions with hazel.

Culturally-Relevant End of Life Care in Humboldt County

Chandler Macik, Social Work Graduate Student

College of Professional Studies

The purpose of our community project is to explore and assess whether any formalized local Indigenous palliative & hospice care services and resources exist in Humboldt County. Research was conducted to gauge the availability and accessibility of culturally-relevant end of life care services.