About

Lauren Anne Acosta is a Division Chair in Nursing Health Education and an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Arizona College of Nursing. She is a member of the Graduate Faculty and is involved in academic leadership within the college. Her role includes overseeing programs within the Nursing & Health Education Division, which encompasses various nursing programs such as BSN, MEPN, and DNP, among others. She is actively engaged in supporting student success, academic advising, and research activities related to nursing education. Her professional contributions include recognition through awards such as the Suzanne Van Ort Peer Award for Teaching and the Knowledge Dissemination Grant from Sigma Theta Tau. She has also been acknowledged for her service and impact in the community, receiving honors like the Public Health Nursing Hero in Action from the Arizona March of Dimes and being named among the Tucson Fabulous 50 Nurses. Her work emphasizes nursing education, community health, and public health, contributing to the advancement of nursing practice and education at the University of Arizona.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Social Science
• Political Science
• Medical emergency
• Gender studies
• Geography
• Medicine
• Anthropology
• Criminology
• Clinical psychology
• Nursing

Selected publications

• Burnout Reduction Strategies Using Mobile-Based Applications: The Creation and Development of the SANE Well App

  Journal of Forensic Nursing · 2024 · 1 citations

  • Medicine
  • Nursing
  • Medical emergency

  INTRODUCTION: Sexual assault nurse examiners (SANEs) provide specialized medical forensic care to survivors of sexual assault, often working in stressful conditions, with routine exposure to the traumatic experiences of their patients. SANEs experience high levels of both vicarious trauma and burnout. PURPOSE: The purpose of this article was to describe the development of a SANE support application, accessible to all SANEs, that utilizes self-care and positive coping strategies to enhance SANE resilience and thereby reduce burnout. METHODS: The conceptual framework for the SANE support application was psychological first aid, an evidence-informed, manualized intervention to assist individuals in the immediate aftermath of exposure to potentially traumatic events. Focus groups with SANEs informed the content of the application named "SANE Well." RESULT: SANE Well delivers these helpful coping elements within an easy-to-use, mobile platform, at no cost. User testing during two SANE clinical skills laboratory trainings revealed the app had smooth and efficient functionality and meets its intended goals without unnecessary complexities. CONCLUSION: There is an urgent need for SANEs to protect their well-being while they care for individuals who have experienced sexual assault. The SANE Well application offers a novel way to provide and encourage positive coping strategies for nurses to reduce burnout.

  PublisherDOI

• Post-Rape Experiences of Undocumented Mexican Women in the U.S.–Mexico Border Region: A Critical Ethnography

  Hispanic Health Care International · 2022 · 2 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Gender studies

  This study suggests that the marginalization of these survivors detrimentally impacts their post-rape experiences and describes the intersections of multiple forces on their experiences, including the cultural and sociopolitical context of the border region. This study lays the foundation for future research aimed at mitigating disclosure and help-seeking barriers for this marginalized group.

  PublisherDOI

• What are Qualitative Questions

  2021

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Sociology
  • Social Science

  The innate curiosity of qualitative researchers may be guided by a particular field of study or shaped by specific interests. While it is important for researchers to channel this curiosity as they develop a qualitative study proposal, it is also necessary for researchers to be deliberate and methodical when crafting a research question. The creation of a research question is a crucial step in proposal development that provides a foundation for the entire study. A qualitative researcher operating with a poorly conceived or constructed research question will likely experience problems that affect all subsequent stages of a study and impair the overall trustworthiness of study findings. This workshop will help mitigate these issues, by presenting approaches that help qualitative researchers refine their research questions. Interactive feedback and real time practice with question development will help both novice and experienced researchers explore the relationship between the research question and optimal study design. This workshop will give participants the confidence they need to skillfully develop a qualitative research question that will lay the groundwork for fruitful scientific inquiry. Objectives: Identify relationships between research questions and study designs Describe how the right research questions afford trustworthiness Match questions to designs Schedule Overview of research questions and study designs (15 min) - Lecture Research aims and study designs (10 min) - Small Group Interaction Trustworthiness and research questions (10 min) - Guided Large Group Discussion Question and Design Matching Exercise (15 min) - Small Group / Worksheet Review/Questions (10 min) - Large Group Discussion

  Publisher

• Applicability of the DMU e-Parasitology for teaching cell and parasite culture

  DMU Open Research Archive (De Montfort University) · 2019-07-08

  articleOpen access

  De Montfort University (DMU, UK) and the Spanish University of San Pablo CEU (USP-CEU) and Miguel Hernández de Elche, are developing a complete on-line package for teaching and learning medical parasitology, named DMU e-Parasitology (http://parasitology.dmu.ac.uk). This novel package includes a virtual laboratory and microscope with a complete library of digitised 2D slides of parasites in clinical samples. Recently, we have been successful in using super-resolution 3D microscopy (3D Cell Explorer; Nanolive, Lausanne, Switzerland), to incorporate 3D microscopic photographs (multiple-viewpoint-holographic images, 96 z-stacks) of fixed cultures, on slides, of important human parasites provided by the Cell Culture Laboratory (USP-CEU). We have also created two e-learning units that show all the practices and procedures of work in a cell and parasite culture unit in conjunction with detailed information and videos of parasitologists working in real conditions with amoebas and Leishmania infantum cultures. These novel resources were tested using a blended approach with final year Biomedical Science and Medical Science students at DMU that voluntarily enrolled to receive practical training in cell/parasite culture provided by an USP-CEU academic through an Erasmus+ mobility grant. Briefly, 2-hour training sessions were delivered, in which students working in pairs were trained how to culture adherent human cancer cells lines, including counting viable vs. dead cells. Twenty-two students attended these sessions; 9 (8 BMS, 1 BMedSci) provided comprehensive feedback. Prior to attending the laboratory session, participants were asked to view the DMU e-Parasitology cell and parasite culture units. 88.9% reported that the e-learning units (22.2% agreed, 66.7% strongly agreed) and the virtual microscopic slides (55.6% agreed, 33.3% strongly agreed) facilitated their learning. Only one student (11%) indicated that the units were difficult to understand. Most students (55.6% agreed, 33.3% strongly agreed) indicated that they learnt basic skills to perform cell/parasite culture. Some students demanded more time to perform the practical, or to deliver it in the first term when they have just started the course. Although preliminary, our results indicate that the methods and resources here detailed could help with the teaching/learning of these important practical topics to any future health scientist.

  PublisherOA PDF

• Exploring Cultural and Socio-Political Influences on the Post-Rape Decisions and Behaviors of Undocumented Immigrant Women of Mexican-Origin

  UA Campus Repository (The University of Arizona) · 2019-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Millions of undocumented immigrant women of Mexican-origin (UIWM) currently reside in the U.S. (American Immigration Council, 2014), with the majority living in border states (Massey, Rugh, & Pren, 2010). National data suggest that thousands of these women will experience a rape during their time in this country (Black et al., 2011). Their marginalized status makes them uniquely vulnerable to rape sequelae (Bryant-Davis, Chung, Tillman, & Belcourt, 2009), yet few studies have focused on the needs of this unique group of rape survivors. This study used a critical ethnographic approach to explore the cultural and socio-political influences on the post-rape decision-making processes and behaviors (i.e. discloser and help-seeking) of UIWM that experienced a rape in the U.S. border region. Thirteen key informants, including six UIWM that survived rape and seven stakeholders (individuals with knowledge of, or contact with, UIWM that have survived rape) participated in interviews; survivors also participated in a PhotoVoice activity. Data were analyzed according to Carspecken’s (1996) guidelines for critical qualitative research and incorporated photographic analysis. Three domains were revealed: Helping Survivors, Barrier After Barrier, and Overcoming, which were united by the overarching theme Struggling to Heal. Findings were plotted on an adapted matrix of oppression and organized into an illustrative diagram. Findings suggest that although help is available for survivors, for UIWM healing is a constant struggle against cultural, social, and political barriers that make moving forward difficult. These findings fill a gap in current literature and will allow rape crisis centers and other organizations to garner a better understanding of the specific needs of UIWM following rape.

  Publisher

• Blended learning for teaching cell culture as part of DMU e-Parasitology.

  DMU Open Research Archive (De Montfort University) · 2019-09-01 · 1 citations

  book-chapter

  Emerging and re-emerging human parasites have become a global health threat due to different factors including globalisation, climate and vector ecology changes that have highlighted the necessity of teaching human parasitology to appropriately train future health care professionals. However, a significant erosion in the teaching of parasitology in conjunction with a reduction of the number of parasitology departments across European universities has been reported. To maintain and strengthen the teaching of this discipline, De Montfort University (DMU, UK) is leading an innovative international project for the development of a complete on-line package for teaching and learning parasitology named DMU e-Parasitology. This package will be publicly available on the DMU website here http://parasitology.dmu.ac.uk/ when completed early in 2019 and have different modules including a Virtual Laboratory. This paper focuses on the first e-learning unit created for the Virtual Laboratory section, named Human Cell Culture, and the validation undertaken to use it as a model unit to build this section. Cell culture is fundamental in parasitology for supporting different areas such as culture of obligate intracellular parasites or testing future drugs against these pathogens. The evaluation of the unit with undergraduate Biomedical Science students in 2017/18 at De Montfort University (UK) indicate that the unit seemed successful in facilitating students to acquire essential basic skills for working with cells in a cell culture room. Finally, we also provide a description of the short-blended learning experience implemented to validate the unit, intervention that could be easily adopted to enhance the teaching of cell culture in human health science programmes.

  Publisher

• You Learn When You Teach: A Narrative Pedagogy for Faculty and Doctoral-Level Student Teaching Assistants

  The Qualitative Report · 2019-11-22 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The purpose of this study was to understand the meaning of online co-teaching for PhD faculty and teaching assistants (TAs). Narrative pedagogy underpinned the inquiry, which was designed to advance the discourse on mentorship of PhD future faculty. A faculty member and TA authors kept concurrent weekly journals or after-the-fact written reflections. The authors analyzed data as a team using a five-phase interpretive phenomenological analysis process to interpret the meaning of co-teaching for faculty and TAs. Lines of inquiry, central concerns, exemplars, shared meanings, and paradigm cases supported the overall interpretation, “You Learn When You Teach.” Co-mentorship should be a requirement for nursing faculty preparation programs. Five strategies for ensuring success of PhD nursing students’ development as professional nurse scholars are recommended. Doctoral programs (e.g., PhD; DNP) would benefit from a unified approach to faculty preparation, guided by theories such as narrative pedagogy.

  PublisherDOI

• Developing a novel resource for teaching and learning parasitology: DMU e-Parasitology.

  DMU Open Research Archive (De Montfort University) · 2018-04-24

  articleOpen access

  Background: The study of parasitology has become essential to develop future health care professionals with skills to respond to public health threats such as the recent outbreak of Cryptosporidium in the UK. To facilitate the teaching of parasitology, which is negligible across the different undergraduate and taught masters degrees at De Montfort University (DMU, UK), a group from different EU Universities [DMU and the Spanish universities: University of San Pablo CEU (USP-CEU) and University Miguel Hernández] and clinicians are developing an on-line package for teaching and learning parasitology named DMU e-Parasitology. The development of this teaching resource will cover a gap in the traditional teaching and learning methods that are currently used and provided in the participating universities.
\nMaterials/methods: The DMU e-Parasitology resource is being created for undergraduate and postgraduate human health science students, with corresponding degrees of difficulty on the DMU website (http://parasitology.dmu.ac.uk/). To develop the theoretical section, a preliminary unit about the helminth Toxocara was initially developed to be used as a model for this section: http://parasitology.dmu.ac.uk/learn/modules/toxocara/story.html. Volunteers that studied Parasitology during the first term in 2016/17 [n=27; 6 European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System credits (ECTS); 3rd year module] from the bilingual Pharmacy and Biotechnology degree at USP-CEU provided comprehensive feedback for this preliminary unit at the beginning of the second term. The module was tested with these students because of their knowledge of parasitology.
\nResults: Students described the initial unit as interactive and presenting the appropriate content and resources to study the parasitic disease addressed (toxocariasis). Limitations were the poor navigability in the formative exercise section and the excessive information provided in some slides that could hinder their understanding.
\nConclusions: The team has addressed these limitations and is using this unit as a model to build the DMU e-Parasitology, which will be accessible through the website (http://parasitology.dmu.ac.uk) in 2018. We consider that this teaching and learning resource will overcome barriers of time, space, equipment and resource. Finally, this resource could facilitate the introduction of parasitology in any health science programme with limited time for teaching this subject in their curriculums.

  Publisher

• Developing a digital environment for teaching and learning parasitology.

  DMU Open Research Archive (De Montfort University) · 2018-02-01 · 3 citations

  article

  Eukaryotic parasites represent serious human health threats that require health professionals with the necessary foundation in parasitology to prevent infections and minimise morbidity and mortality in humans. However, the teaching of parasitology is usually a small part in the curricula of microbiology courses, and recent surveys have highlighted a poor understanding of zoonotic diseases by medical practitioners. 
\nTo facilitate the teaching of parasitology and parasitic infectious diseases, teaching which is negligible across the different undergraduate and taught masters degrees at De Montfort University (DMU, UK), a group from different EU Universities [DMU and the Spanish Universities of San Pablo CEU (USP-CEU) and University Miguel Hernández], and practising Biomedical Scientists from the UK National Health Service are developing an on-line package for teaching and learning parasitology named DMU e-Parasitology. This package will be publicly available on the DMU website here http://parasitology.dmu.ac.uk/ when completed in 2018. The DMU e-Parasitology will have three sections: a theoretical module with up-to-date units to study major human parasites from a multidisciplinary, translational programme, which covers all the challenges for addressing these serious and chronic disabling diseases; a virtual laboratory module with units related to techniques and equipment for detecting, identifying and study parasitic diseases; and a virtual microscope with a real slide collection of clinical samples of parasites. This digital learning environment will reinforce self-learning, so units present different formative assessments in the form of a quiz, activity and/or exam. Additionally, interactive clinical case studies with different degrees of difficulty are being created to facilitate the acquisition of clinical and parasitology skills including key transversal competences such as critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Students will use the virtual microscope to resolve the case studies by identifying morphologically the parasite(s) in different clinical samples displayed in the case studies.
\nThe first theoretical unit was created in 2016 on Toxocara and tested with a focus group at USP-CEU that provided feedback to build an appropriate and robust unit that is being used as a model. The focus group’s perception of the DMU e-Parasitology was overwhelmingly positive. We consider that this novel digital learning environment will facilitate the introduction of parasitology in any human health science degree by overcoming barriers of time, space, equipment and resources. Finally, this resource could actively engage students’ interest in parasitology by promoting active and self-learning.

  Publisher

• Applicability of DMU e-Parasitology for learning medical parasitology.

  DMU Open Research Archive (De Montfort University) · 2018-08-24

  article

  De Montfort University (DMU, Leicester, UK) is leading the development of the DMU e-Parasitology package for the teaching and learning of medical parasitology, a resource that will be freely available (http://parasitology.dmu.ac.uk/) in late 2018, and has four modules: a theoretical module; a virtual laboratory and microscope modules with a complete collection of clinical slides for the study of major parasitic diseases; and a virtual case studies module in which the user will be provided with a medical history and different clinical slides to identify the parasites and their structures. To assess the effectiveness of this novel package in facilitating the acquisition of medical parasitology knowledge, we have delivered a specific workshop session in the DMU MSc Advanced Biomedical Science 2017/18 using the first virtual case study (http://parasitology.dmu.ac.uk/learn/case_studies/cs1/story_html5.html). Briefly: an HIV positive patient was severely affected by Entamoeba histolytica and died because of granulomatous amoebic encephalitis due to Acanthamoeba spp. To complete the workshop, students needed to familiarise themselves with DMU e-Parasitology, check the relevant theoretical units and the library of virtual clinical slides. 100% (71.4% agreed, 28.57 strongly agreed) of students indicated that DMU e-Parasitology was interactive and the case-study appropriate for their studies (57.1% agreed, 42.9% strongly agreed). All students highlighted that the workshop was easy to understand (71.43% agreed, 28.57% strongly agreed); and indicated that they gained appropriate knowledge in pathology, prevention and treatment (57.1% agreed, 42.9% strongly agreed). The virtual microscope was highlighted as the most interesting tool for learning, although 14.3% neither agreed nor disagreed, possibly because this module was incomplete. Finally, some students identified the references and glossary provided in the theoretical units as items for improvement. Despite being preliminary, the DMU e-Parasitology package seemed successful in promoting active learning and increasing engagement in the study of medical parasitology.

  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Antonio Peña‐Fernández

  Universidad de Alcalá

  6 shared

• A. Magnet

  5 shared

• C. del Águila

  4 shared

• Fernando Izquierdo

  Universidad San Pablo CEU

  4 shared

• Mark D. Evans

  Hematology Oncology Consultants

  4 shared

• F. Bornay

  Universitat de Miguel Hernández d'Elx

  3 shared

• Soledad Fenoy

  Universidad San Pablo CEU

  3 shared

• Gary Carstensen

  Center for Assessment

  2 shared

Labs

• Behavioral/Applied Clinical Sciences LaboratoryPI

Awards & honors

• Suzanne Van Ort Peer Award for Teaching, College of Nursing…
• November Staff Spotlight, Southern Arizona Center Against Se…
• Staff Spotlight - November, Southern Arizona Center Against…
• Knowledge Dissemination Grant, Sigma Theta Tau - Beta Mu, Sp…
• Public Health Nursing Hero in Action, Arizona March of Dimes…