Education Commons^™

Development Of A Nurse Anesthesia Program Point-Of-Care Ultrasound Airway Examination Curriculum, Sarah Elyse Sandheinrich Butler, Colton Phillip Butler

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Airway management is a critical and fundamental skill for anesthesia providers. Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is an up-and-coming assessment technique that can provide critical information about a patient’s airway anatomy and may increase patient safety during anesthesia care. As a result, understanding the appropriate POCUS equipment, techniques, findings, and clinical implications for airway examination can become essential for safe and effective anesthesia practice. This project aimed to develop a clinical airway POCUS examination curriculum with detailed instructions on all aspects of appropriate examination equipment, set-up, technique, and implications for findings. The team designed the curriculum to incorporate it into the host …

Fantastic Four, Jaden Zumbahlen, Andrea Palmer

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Clinical Issue
Heart failure claims one in four lives of those diagnosed each year. The term Guideline Directed Medication Therapy (GDMT) represents optimal medication therapy as defined by the American College of Cardiology Foundation and American Heart Association. Appropriate quadruple therapy results in an estimated 73% relative reduction in mortality over a two-year time span (Greene & Khan, 2021). However, there is a gap in proper GDMT stemming from suboptimal initiation and/or titration in the outpatient setting.

Project Implementation
Nursing staff in a rural midwestern cardiology clinic were provided with an in-service presentation discussing current guidelines and recommendations of GDMT …

Development Of Neuraxial Anesthesia Educational Videos For Nurse Anesthesia Students, Mackenzie Schutt, Kaylie Lajeunesse

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Development of Neuraxial Anesthesia Educational Videos for Nurse Anesthesia Students

Kaylie LaJeunesse, BSN, RN, SRNA & Mackenzie Schutt, BSN, RN, SRNA

Performance and evaluation of anesthetic procedures, specifically neuraxial anesthesia, are core components of nurse anesthesia curriculums. Teaching methods must provide nurse anesthesia students with the proper tools and knowledge to perform skills confidently and proficiently. Traditional teaching methods have fallen short of providing the necessary instruction for optimal student success. Incorporating video-learning resources on neuraxial anesthesia into course curriculums can significantly improve nurse anesthesia practice by better-preparing students for the clinical setting. Video learning increases student engagement and facilitates …

Expansion Of Heart Failure Education From Hospital To Clinic, Abigail M. Fischer

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Heart failure education is vital to the long-term management of this condition. Education recommendations for heart failure are given by the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American College of Cardiology (ACC). Recommendations include verbal instruction and written materials regarding the patient’s medication plan, recognition of symptoms, what to do when symptoms occur, and the importance of daily weights.

This project aimed to provide outpatient clinic providers and staff with resources and education necessary to educate heart failure patients. The project expanded use of an inpatient heart failure education packet for outpatient use. This was accomplished by conducting educational sessions …

Just Culture In Undergraduate Nursing Academia, Marcie Leonard

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Understanding the importance of reporting errors, near misses, and good catches by nursing students is not a standard part of the curriculum at the project site. Nursing students lack pre-requisite knowledge of how just culture does not aim to place blame on individuals but focuses on system flaws. Nursing students fear being dismissed from the nursing program if they make and/or report errors. A focus on eliminating the fear of dismissal from a nursing program for error reporting and formally educating how error reporting can help shape practice for many other nursing students and nurses will result in better data …

Identifying Facilitators And Barriers For A Successful Student Registered Nurse Anesthetist’S Clinical Experience, James Clancy, Adam Bruinius

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Student registered nurse anesthetists experience a wide variety of barriers and facilitators to their clinical education; often rotating through several clinical sites during their nurse anesthesia educational program (NAEP) tenure. Existing evidence suggests SRNAs must be proficient in seeking, accepting, and utilizing feedback from clinical preceptors (Algiraigri, 2014). Accepting constructive criticism may be challenging for SRNAs as they are highly skilled, competent nurses who are now entering rigorous NAEPs as novices. Reverting from preceptor to preceptee can be a difficult transition for SRNAs. This project aimed to identify barriers and facilitators to a successful SRNA clinical education through a literature …

Increasing Obesity Education In An Underserved Latino Population, Morgan Lippert, Kelsey Beard

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Obesity is a rapidly growing health problem in the United States. Certain populations are at high risk for developing obesity including the Latino population and underserved communities. This Quality Improvement project aimed to develop a more patient centered approach for primary care providers use to deliver obesity education to an at-risk Latino population. The project was completed at a clinic in southern Illinois where the majority of the population is underserved and Spanish speaking. Obesity education tools in both Spanish and English were given to the patients in order to decrease the language barrier and improve patient education and understanding …

The Effectiveness Of Using The Anatomage Table As A Learning Adjunct To Peripheral Nerve Blocks Among Student Registered Nurse Anesthetists, Paige Dickey, Melissa Gerlach, Mary Zerlan

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Abstract

In anesthesia programs across the country, learning advanced level human anatomy and physiology concepts provides a large foundation for which skills used in clinical application are learned. Student registered nurse anesthetists (SRNAs) are clinically trained to perform a variety of invasive procedures in practice including peripheral nerve blocks (PNBs). This project aimed to implement a supplemental, hands-on learning activity to improve overall PNB education, ultimately improving patient care and safety. A series of guided lessons were created to help the students walk through the anatomy of PNBs utilizing the Anatomage table (AT). SRNAs attended a workshop where they went …

Critical Care Orientation Escape Room, Leah Deaton

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Newly licensed nurses often feel unprepared and lack confidence as they transition from academia to practice. Education Specialists who oversee training programs for newly graduated nurses are challenged to create education modalities that are meaningful, engaging, and promote critical thinking. The purpose of this project was to create an Educational Escape Room to reinforce principles of safe medication administration for new nurses entering critical care areas in a large pediatric hospital. Escape Rooms engage learners through gamification and active-learning principles to improve knowledge synthesis and retention. Eighty-three newly hired critical care RNs participated in the Educational Escape Room during house-wide …

The Impact Of A Cultural Competence Assessment Tool On Teaching Strategies In The Dnp Curriculum At Southern Illinois University Of Edwardsville, Katarina Dobrosavljevic

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Providing culturally competent and culturally congruent care to patients leads to better outcomes and reduction of poor outcomes due to health disparities. Providing care that is not culturally congruent can contribute to communication barriers, resulting in deficient diagnostic testing, miscommunication about etiologies, treatment plans that are not individualized, and discounting of patient's ideas. Individuals from diverse cultures face health disparities which contribute to inadequate care and poor outcomes. The purpose of this project was to survey former graduates of the Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville (SIUE) family nurse practitioner (FNP) program to assess their level of cultural competence and areas …

Continuing Education Preferences Amongst Crnas, Jamie Nichting

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

The Illinois Association of Nurse Anesthetists (IANA) is a professional organization representing Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs). To ensure compliance with high standards of care in the profession, CRNAs are required to obtain continuing education units (CEUs) for each 4-year certification period. The IANA offers conferences in both fall and spring, however, a loss in attendance and revenue at state meetings concerns the board members as to how state members are complying with the educational requirements to remain certified. It was imperative that the IANA needed to implement new educational opportunities that actively engaged CRNAs resulting in an increase in …

Utilizing Simulation To Implement Cognitive Aids In The Operating Room, Kaitlyn Brown

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: Operating room crises require prompt, efficient action to avoid detrimental outcomes. Research shows that crisis checklists or other cognitive aids assist anesthesia providers in taking prompt action while improving efficiency by decreasing treatment steps missed during critical events.

Objectives: The purpose of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of incorporating cardiac arrest and malignant hyperthermia crisis checklists into the operating room using high-fidelity simulation-based education.

Methods: Researchers implemented the Stanford Emergency Manual Cognitive Aids for cardiac arrest and malignant hyperthermia to anesthesia staff at a community hospital in southern Illinois with 18 participants. Implementation consisted of an education …

Heart Failure Knowledge Among Cnas In A Skilled Nursing Facility: A Pilot Project, Amanda Mcdannald

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Heart failure (HF) is one of the leading causes of hospitalization among patients over the age of 65 years. Many are transitioned to skilled nursing facilities (SNF) following hospital discharge. HF-specific SNF staff education was designed for early detection of changes and improved management of this patient population. Computer-based education modules and hands on skill demonstration stations were created to provide basic HF knowledge and specific guideline recommended care measures for the SNF environment. A pretest, post-test, and skill demonstration were implemented and included weight assessment, application of compression stockings, volume status monitoring, and low sodium diet recommendations. Pretest scores …

The Effectiveness Of Implementing A Diabetic Checklist To Improve Patient Care Documentation, Evans Mutua, Edwilyn Colwell

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

The Effectiveness of Implementing a Diabetic Checklist to Improve Patient Care Documentation of Treatment and Outcomes.

Diabetes mellitus is a major public health problem worldwide. In 2012, about 29.1 million Americans had diabetes with about 1.4 million Americans being diagnosed with diabetes yearly (CDC, 2017). Diabetes is the 7^th leading cause of death in the United states and in Illinois, the cost is $6,490 per person with a treated population of 774, 600 (CDC, 2017). Complication due to diabetes include; diabetic retinopathy, neuropathy, end stage renal disease, amputations and death.

The American Diabetes Association, provide evidence-based guidelines for the …