Ukamaka Oruche

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Dr. Ukamaka Oruche’s interdisciplinary intervention program supports parents and caregivers of adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders (DBD). Adolescents with DBD, characterized by ongoing patterns of antisocial and defiant behaviors, have lower educational achievement, greater involvement with the criminal justice system, and lower rates of stable, long-term placement in the child welfare system than adolescents without DBD.

These adolescents have complex treatment regimens that require active parent involvement with child service and mental health systems. Parents describe feeling stressed, disrespected, and blamed for their adolescents’ behavior problems. These negative experiences leave parents feeling disengaged from care and less likely to follow recommended treatment, which can contribute to poor adolescent outcomes.

Low-income urban parents, particularly African Americans, are at greater risk for aversive interactions with professionals because of socio-economic disadvantage. Dr. Oruche developed the theoretical-based Family Management Efficacy intervention to address the stress parents and caregivers experience in caring for their adolescents with DBD.

Her intervention research is designed to strengthen family member’s perceived self-efficacy to manage interactions both within the family and with child service system professionals. Research products include a standardized treatment manual, a facilitator guide, parent workbooks, and fidelity checklists.

Dr. Oruche’s work to support parents and caregivers of adolescents with DBD is another example of how IUPUI faculty are TRANSLATING RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.

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Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 10 of 48
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    Executive summary: Indiana Schools of Nursing substance abuse education
    (2022) Oruche, Ukamaka M.; Adams, Nicole; Xu, Jiayun; Crowder, Sharron; Cangany, Martha; Bracale, Jolene; Ofner, Susan; Fulton, Janet S.
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    Preparing Nurse Practitioner Students to Recognize Health Inequities and Global Health Issues
    (2022-07-24) Oruche, Ukamaka M.; Moorman, Meg; deRose, Barbara; Berlanga King, Gloria; Antisdel, J'Andra
    This is a quality improvement project to enhance the preparation of advanced practice or master's level nursing students training for workplace readiness to serve ALL patients and advance health equity locally and globally.
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    Educational QUality-improvement in APRN Learning: Reducing Health Inequities for ALL Program (EQUAL-ALL Program)
    (2020-03-03) Oruche, Ukamaka M.
    We proposed a quality improvement project focused on MSN students to ensure they are well prepared to contribute with all diverse patient populations from both the United States and beyond. Specific aims are to assess MSN students’ learning needs and develop and implement a training program to increase MSN students’ knowledge and skills for working with different others.
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    Individualized approach to primary prevention of substance use disorder: age-related risks
    (Springer, 2020-08-14) Afuseh, Eric; Pike, Caitlin; Oruche, Ukamaka M.; University Library
    Background The misuse of legal and illegal substances has led to an increase in substance use disorder (SUD) in the United States. Although primary prevention strategies have been successfully used to target chronic physical diseases, these strategies have been less effective with SUD, given misconceptions of SUD, shortages in behavioral health professionals, and the population-based focus on specific substances. A developmental approach to the identification and primary prevention of SUD that does not fully rely upon behavioral health workers is needed. The purpose of this paper was to examine age related risk factors for developing SUD and present a novel individualized approach to SUD prevention. Methods A literature search was conducted to identify risk factors for SUD among children, young adults, adults, and older adults. We searched CINAHL, PsycINFO, and PubMed between the years 1989–2019, and extracted data, analyzing similarities and differences in risk factors across life stages. Broader categories emerged that were used to group the risk factors. Results More than 370 articles were found. Across all age groups, risk factors included adverse childhood experiences, trauma, chronic health diseases, environmental factors, family history, social determinants, and grief and loss. Despite the similarities, the contextual factors and life challenges associated with these risks varied according to the various life stages. We proposed an approach to primary prevention of SUD based on risk factors for developing the disease according to different age groups. This approach emphasizes screening, education, and empowerment (SEE), wherein individuals are screened for risk factors according to their age group, and screening results are used to customize interventions in the form of education and empowerment. Given that trained persons, including non-healthcare providers, close to the at-risk individual could conduct the screening and then educate and mentor the individual according to the risk level, the number of people who develop SUD could decrease. Conclusions The risk factors for developing SUD vary across the various life stages, which suggests that individualized approaches that do not overtax behavioral healthcare workers are needed. Using SEE may foster early identification and individualized prevention of SUD.
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    Engaging Communities to Improve Healthcare for Non-communicable Diseases: Notes from the Field in Southeastern Nigeria
    (2020-12-18) Oruche, Ukamaka M.; Liu, Jenny; Otey, Tamara; Hone, Augustina; Okwuchukwu, Ifeanyi; Commodore-Mensah, Yvonne; School of Nursing
    In rural communities in low-and middle-income countries like Nigeria, healthcare is a patchwork of services. Only a small portion of the healthcare provision in Nigeria comes from a unified health system. Therefore, remote and rural communities receive minimal preventive health services. Medical missions can play a critical role in closing gaps in care and improving healthcare access for vulnerable populations. However, long-term sustainability is difficult to achieve without deliberate community engagement from planning to evaluation. In this manuscript, the authors describe a collaborative, community-engaged global health service project in rural southeastern Nigeria that included medical missions and provided continuous care of non-communicable diseases post-mission for sustained impact. The authors conclude with insights gained regarding the challenges of engaging communities at a distance through translational collaboration as well as implications for conducting such work.
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    How racism in US health system hinders care and costs lives of African Americans
    (2020-06-29) Zapolski, Tamika C. B.; Oruche, Ukamaka M.; School of Nursing
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    The Role of Nurses in Eliminating Health Disparities and Achieving Health Equity
    (SLACK, 2020-12-01) Oruche, Ukamaka M.; Zapolski, Tamika C. B.; School of Nursing
    Nurses are the largest and most trusted health care workforce and have both professional and moral responsibility to acknowledge, lead, and act to eliminate health disparities and achieve health equity. However, similar to other health professionals, most nurses indicate that they do not have requisite preparation and, therefore, are not practice-ready to meet the need of patients from diverse backgrounds (Fleckman, Corsco, Ramirez, Begaleiva, & Johnson, 2015; Institute of Medicine, 2011). Nursing students’ preparation and nurse clinicians’ continuing education are increasingly important not only due to the disparities in health outcomes described above, but also due to the increasing diversity of the U.S. population as a whole.
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    Interprofessionality: A Pathway to a More Sustainable National Healthcare System
    (IGI Global, 2020-02-07) Obichi, Chidiebele Constance; Newton, April D.; Oruche, Ukamaka M.
    Preventable medical errors (PME) is the third leading cause of death in the United States with an incidence range of 210,000 to 400,000 deaths per year and an estimated cost of $19.5 billion to $958 billion per year. Despite advances in patient safety, PME persists across the nation.