The Development And Evaluation Of Nurse-Created Video Modules To Encourage Healthy Behaviors Among Women With Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (Pcos), Rebecca Akers

Doctoral Projects

Problem Statement: Women with PCOS have a higher prevalence of overweight and obesity, a problem that is directly linked with many of the symptoms and long-term health problems experienced by these individuals. Research studies indicate that lifestyle modifications, including dietary changes and increased physical activity aimed at promoting weight loss, are often the initial approach to treatment, but many women fail to adopt those health-promoting behaviors, which may be due to insufficient teaching and support provided by healthcare professionals.

Purpose: Utilize Pender’s Health Promotion Model to develop and evaluate a set of educational video modules focused on encouraging women with …

Surgical Fire Prevention And Management: An Objective Structured Clinical Examination For Nurse Anesthesia, Tate Fazio, Kaleb Killens

Doctoral Projects

Sentinel events in health care are rare events, often corresponding with permanent injury or death. Fires in the operating room (OR) are one type of sentinel event. Although rare due to possible life-threatening injuries to patients and staff, appropriate surgical fire education is critical in nurse anesthesia education, as anesthesia providers play a significant role in surgical fires (Wunder et al., 2020). The development of simulation exercises has the potential for students to experience and become competent in managing high-acuity, low-frequency events, such as surgical fires (Wunder et al., 2020). The Nurse Anesthesia Program (NAP) at The University of Southern …

Implementing Low-Dose Ct Scans To Screen For Lung Cancer In The Primary Care Setting, Monifa Ri'ana Beal

Doctoral Projects

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in both men and women in the United States. By the end of 2023, lung cancer will have been diagnosed in approximately 238,000 Americans and claimed the lives of about 127,000 of those that are diagnosed.(American Cancer Society, 2023) Currently lung cancer accounts for more deaths among Americans than breast, prostate, and colon cancers combined (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2019). Despite being one of the most preventable cancers in the world, lung cancer continues to be the leading cause of cancer-related death among Americans and more so in …

Preventing Diabetes Through Prediabetes Screening And Treatment In Primary Care, Dewona Beal

Doctoral Projects

Diabetes is an epidemic in the United States. There are three types of diabetes: type 1, 2, and gestational diabetes. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is the most common type of diabetes. This type of diabetes can be prevented or delayed. In persons with T2DM, the body cannot use insulin well to keep blood glucose within normal limits. Several factors, including genetics, lifestyle such as poor diet and physical inactivity, obesity, insulin resistance, hormones, and certain medications, can cause it. A precursor to T2DM is prediabetes. Prediabetes is when blood sugar levels are elevated but not elevated enough to be …

Assessing Social Determinants Of Health In Primary Care, Vicki Carpenter

Doctoral Projects

The social determinants of health encompass the various circumstances and environments in which individuals reside, develop, labor, and experience aging (Social Determinants of Health, 2022). These variables significantly contribute to the existence of health inequities and disparities within populations. In order to effectively mitigate health disparities, it is imperative to consider the various determinants that influence health outcomes, as this consideration is crucial for advancing the goal of achieving health equity. This public health concern encompasses multiple sectors within our society, necessitating the collaboration of various organizations and communities to effectively address and mitigate its impact.

The fundamental …

A Quality Improvement Project On Blood Pressure Measurement: Are We Failing Our Patients?, Michael Baker

Doctoral Projects

Despite billions of dollars invested in research, education, and equipment, high blood pressure remains a significant contributor to mortality rates across the globe. According to the Centers for Disease Control (2019), hypertension was listed as a primary or contributing cause of over a half-million deaths in the United States (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2021). Without regard to race, gender, background, or socioeconomic level, this “silent killer” the Mississippi State Department of Health estimated that over 700,000 Mississippi adults were diagnosed with high blood pressure and thousands more at an increased risk each year (MSDH, 2019). Failure to identify and …

Use Of Behavior Management Training To Improve Nurses' Confidence In Managing Patient Aggression, Chasity Long

Doctoral Projects

Workplace aggression and violence toward healthcare workers are documented extensively throughout the literature and unfortunately, this behavior has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Challenges brought on by the pandemic, such as visitor restrictions and short staffing, have only exacerbated patient aggression and violence. Workplace aggression and violence can cause not only psychological or physical injury to nurses and nursing staff, but it also impacts patient care, job satisfaction, absenteeism, and nurse retention. Training programs to improve nurses’ assessment skills to predict aggressive behaviors and de-escalate violent situations can help nurses better predict and manage patient aggression. A behavior management training …

Promoting The Adoption Of Double Gloving Among Nurse Anesthetists: An Educational Intervention Based On The Theory Of Planned Behavior, Nguyet Tran

Doctoral Projects

Abstract

Background: The role of anesthetists in the transmission of pathogenic and non-pathogenic organisms from their work station to the patient has been well established in research. The proposed study aims to test the efficacy of an educational intervention in promoting double gloving in an effort to minimize the risk of cross-contamination.

Methods: This pilot study explored if multi-component educational intervention facilitates the adoption of double gloving and the prevention of cross-contamination in the anesthesia workstation. Student Registered Nurse Anesthetists (SRNAs) and Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) were followed in three evaluation phases; the first test was done before the …

Quality Improvement Project To Assist In Implementation Of Prediabetes Screen Protocol, Kyai Forney

Doctoral Projects

Prediabetes is a reversible condition that causes blood glucose levels to be higher than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes. When one has prediabetes, the cells in the body do not respond normally to insulin, and insulin acts like a key to letting blood sugar into cells to use energy. The pancreas produces insulin to try to get the cells to respond, but eventually, the pancreas has a challenging time keeping up, and the blood sugar level rises causing prediabetes (Lehrman, 2021). A person can have prediabetes for years with no obvious symptoms, so …

Studying The Impact Of Hyperlipidemia Monitoring Tools On Referral Rates In Patients Taking Antipsychotics, Jasmyn S. Allen

Doctoral Projects

The purpose of this DNP project is to determine how well an evaluation tool may be used to track hyperlipidemia in patients using antipsychotic medicines who are between the ages of 20 and 50. Elevated lipid contents in the bloodstream, or hyperlipidemia, increase the danger of heart-related illnesses. Antipsychotic drugs, frequently administered for mental health disorders and dyslipidemia, have been connected. The goal is to ascertain whether utilizing an evaluation tool raises the three-month referral rates for hyperlipidemia to primary care (Dayabandara et al., 2017). The foundation of the research is found in several articles collected from different websites. According …

Effectiveness Of Staff Training On Trauma-Informed Care, Brandy Tramel Williams

Doctoral Projects

The connection between experiencing trauma and the development of substance use disorder is widely recognized. Although trauma is more prevalent among individuals with substance use disorders, healthcare professionals have limited access to training focused on trauma informed care. It is crucial for those working in addiction treatment to receive training and education on trauma informed care to understand the impact of trauma and its association with substance use disorders.

This DNP project's objective was to develop and evaluate an educational presentation for staff emphasizing the importance of trauma-informed care in the context of addiction. The effectiveness of this intervention was …

Early Identification Of Barriers To Medication Adherence In The Elderly Population Through The Use Of A Modified Screening Tool, Miranda Joyner, Blake Meranto

Doctoral Projects

Medication nonadherence (MNA) is a major contributor to hospitalizations and accounts for billions of dollars spent every year on health care. Despite medications being prescribed in nearly 75% of healthcare interactions, it is estimated that 33 to 50% of Americans do not take their medications as prescribed, if at all (Bartlett Ellis et al., 2020; Kleinsinger, 2018). The COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behavior) Model used in this DNP project suggests that an individual must have the capability, opportunity, and motivation to enact a certain behavior, and should any of these areas be lacking, the behavior is unlikely to occur. This …

Promoting Positive Sexual Health Behaviors Among Rural College Students: Results Of A Targeted Sti Prevention Program, Julie Loyke

Doctoral Projects

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are a significant public health concern, with 26 million new cases diagnosed annually in the U.S. Emerging adults aged 18 to 25 years, which are included in the age group of Americans who have the highest rates for the three most common STIs: chlamydia, gonorrhea, and HPV (cdc.gov., 2020). Unfortunately, there is a paucity of research on the effects of STI education interventions on the attitudes and knowledge regarding STIs in this age group, especially in rural youth. While STI rates are high among adolescents and young adults nationally, rural youth have different behavioral risk factors …

Supporting Adoption Of Atraumatic Care By Rural Hospital Nursing Staff Through Education, Angie Sowers

Doctoral Projects

Problem Statement: While atraumatic care is often practiced in children's specialty hospitals, it is less likely to be a part of the care provided in rural hospitals (Li et al., 2018). Nurses in this setting may not feel equipped or supported to provide atraumatic care.

Purpose: The purpose of this DNP Project is to support increased knowledge and utilization of atraumatic care by nursing staff providing care for pediatric patients in rural community hospital through a professional development education program. Methods: An educational program development project was created, implemented, and evaluated to support the utilization, awareness, and knowledge of atraumatic …

Implementation Of A Peer Support Program To Increase Resilience In Nurse Managers In Acute Care Hospitals: A Pilot Study, Juana Castillo

Doctoral Projects

Background: Nurse managers are at risk for experiencing stress and burnout. The peer support program was implemented to increase resilience among nurse managers.
Methods: A one-group pretest and posttest design was employed to examine the impact of peer support on nurse manager resilience. The nurse managers participated in bi-weekly 30-minute peer sessions over 12 weeks. The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale was utilized prior to and following the intervention along with demographic and satisfaction surveys.
Results: There were six nurse managers who participated in the peer support program; however, only four completed both the pre- and post-survey. The peer support program intervention …

Utilization Review And Utilization Of Evidence-Based Guidelines, Rosetta E. Hairston

Doctoral Projects

The quality improvement project focused on determining why utilization review nurses submitted epidural steroid injection treatment requests within evidence-based guidelines to peer review. The study reviewed six months of data from June 2022 through December 2022 to develop a pre-training baseline for the number of epidural steroid injection treatment requests approved by the nurse and approved by peer review. Deming's method for quality improvement was identified as the framework for implementing changes. The UR nurses were provided four weeks of refresher training on applying evidence-based guidelines to epidural steroid injection treatment requests. Post-group training sessions reflected a 91% increase in …

Does The Enhanced Recovery Pathway Decrease Length Of Stay And Readmission Rates In Patients Undergoing Gynecologic Surgery?, Trinh T. Nguyen

Doctoral Projects

The Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) pathway promotes an early recovery after surgery using an evidence-based multidisciplinary approach. The ERAS protocol is aimed at standardizing care to improve patient outcomes. There is consistent evidence that ERAS pathways reduce hospital length of stay (LOS) and readmission rates, decrease healthcare costs, and improve patient satisfaction and outcomes. By attenuating the surgical stress response and supporting the return of physiological function, the ERAS pathway achieves its effectiveness. This scholarly project aimed to evaluate how ERAS improves patient outcomes in gynecology patients at a county hospital. A standardized method for improving patient recovery was …

Implementation Of Web-Based Patient Education In Newly Transplanted Kidney Recipients, Tabo Mwikisa-Kelly

Doctoral Projects

Kidney transplantation is the preferred treatment for patients suffering from kidney failure. It is a complex process that is intended to improve one’s quality of life by adhering to a lifelong treatment plan of immunosuppressant therapy. Therefore, it is essential for patients or their caregivers to have adequate knowledge to care for themselves following post-transplant, which can contribute to better patient outcomes. In a metropolitan Bay area hospital in Northern California, the current state of practice involves educating newly transplanted kidney recipients through face-to-face interactions with the patient and handing out a transplant booklet during their initial transplant hospital stay. …

Nurse Practitioner-Led Hepatitis C Virus Education In A Central Valley Opioid Treatment Program, Nikiesha Thomas Redus

Doctoral Projects

Introduction Viral hepatitis has been classified as a worldwide public health threat and it is estimated that 130-150 million people worldwide are infected with viral hepatitis. In the United States, increases in hepatitis C infections can be attributed to intravenous drug use and associated behaviors. Many people who inject drugs are unaware of their serostatus and access to accurate hepatitis C virus (HCV) information and education is limited. However, opioid treatment programs are well positioned to fill hepatitis C services gap among people who inject drugs by providing education, to raise hepatitis C awareness and lead to services and treatment …

Nursing Professional Development Practitioner’S Experience Of Use Of Instructional Design Industry Standards, Denise Renfro

Doctoral Projects

Instructional design (ID) is a critical skill for nursing professional development practitioners (NPDs). Instructional design seeks to solve gaps in knowledge or skill by identifying both the educational issue and the outcomes by designing how to achieve the outcomes. There are complex and advanced instructional design needs for problem solving that requires an educational foundation in instructional design and experience. The purpose of the quality-improvement project was to assess the changes in NPD practitioners’/nurse educators’ adaptation to industry standards for ID pre- and post-implementation of a standardized instructional design model. The Nurse Educator Self-Assessment in Measuring Learning survey was developed …

Examining The Effectiveness Of Physical Activity Patient Education In Improving Hba1c, Nadieh Samiaei

Doctoral Projects

Regular physical activity plays an important role in maintaining good health and managing and reducing HbA1c among type 2 diabetes patients. The goal of this study is to examine the effectiveness of physical activity in reducing the HbA1c among the type 2 diabetes patients of a local community health center in San Leandro, California. A quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest single site design project was conducted among a sample of 24 patients who had type 2 diabetes. The participants were selected to attend regular patient education classes promoting physical activity, diet, and lifestyle change as a measure of controlling diabetes. A paired sample …

Experiences Of Transitioning Medics And Hospital Corpsman, David Renfro

Doctoral Projects

Approximately 2,000 medics transition from military service to civilian jobs annually, and the civilian workforce currently does not have a mechanism to utilize the skills of these transitioning veterans. Medics and Hospital Corpsmen are not licensed or certified, making transferring into employment in the community difficult. The Veterans Affairs (VA) has an intermediate care technician (ICT) program that provides employment for previous active-duty medics and hospital corpsmen. Understanding the transition of medics and hospital corpsmen better positions the Department of Defense and the VA leadership to support the transitioning veteran.
This DNP project used a quality improvement framework, and a …

Standardizing Initial Inpatient Palliative Care Consultations For Patients Receiving Left Ventricular Assist Devices At A Large Urban Hospital, Deborah A. Szeto

Doctoral Projects

For patients with advanced heart failure (HF) ineligible for or awaiting heart transplantation, left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation can be considered. LVADs have helped to improve recipients’ survival rates and quality of life. However, LVAD patients are at risk for complications such as stroke, bleeding, infection, and right ventricular failure. Moreover, events such as end-stage malignancy or progression of a neurodegenerative disorder may occur. Such complications and repeated hospitalizations can pose questions about the acceptability of LVAD therapy. As such, both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and The Joint Commission require that palliative care (PC) be part …

Implementation Of An Online Suicide Prevention Training Program With Undergraduate And Graduate Students At A California State University, Cheryll May P. Villamor

Doctoral Projects

Background: One of the leading causes of death in the college age population is suicide. While colleges provide opportunities in the acquisition of knowledge and skills for future careers; those same opportunities can also bring about challenges that put students at risk for suicide such as: dealing with their mental health issues, finding and maintaining support system, financial costs, and the pressure from ensuring academic success. One of the ways to help student at risk for suicide is by early intervention by connecting them with mental health support system such as crisis counselors. Question, Persuade, and Refer (QPR) is a …

Expanding Labor Support Education To Nurses Caring For Women In Labor, Ana L. Viera-Martinez

Doctoral Projects

The ability to provide emotional and physical support to a patient during one of the most significant moments of her life is a privilege afforded to intrapartum nurses who attend to laboring and delivering mothers. Labor support improves birth outcomes, reduces cesarean birth rates, and decreases anesthesia use. More labor support education needs to be made available to intrapartum nurses. Within the hospital context, this quality improvement (QI) project investigated the effects of educating intrapartum nurses about labor support and providing them with hands-on training. Surveys, including the Self-Efficacy Labor Support Scale, were as given pre- and post-education to evaluate …

Health Promotion Module For Migrant Youth Adults In Obesity Prevention: A Pilot Project, James Chongsu Wong

Doctoral Projects

The obesity epidemic continues to worsen. It is estimated there are over one half billion adults worldwide struggling with obesity. In the United States of America, 42% of the adults and over 15 million children are obese. Obesity leads to a myriad of other chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. With an annual spending exceeding 173 billion dollars, obesity not only has a negative impact on quality of life but also a huge economic impact on the health care system.
This quality improvement project utilized 4 educational modules as intervention and measured the mean changes using a …

Improving Breastfeeding Rates Through Education, Julianna Youssef

Doctoral Projects

Background: Breastfeeding is beneficial for newborn babies, but there are many challenges that new mothers face that prevent them from exclusively breastfeeding.
Objective: To evaluate if re-educational training in RN’s and LVN’s is an effective way to increase the exclusive breastfeeding rates in the hospital setting.
Methods: We utilized a pretest/post-test quasi-experimental design and had the goal sample size was about 50 nurses. The nurses were given an educational PowerPoint at a monthly staff meeting. Pretests were given to the staff immediately before and posttests two weeks later. Additionally, exclusive breastfeeding rates were monitored for the three months before the …

Speak Up For Hand Hygiene And Decrease Healthcare Associated Infections, Bernadette Priya Pandya-Orozco

Doctoral Projects

Background: Hand hygiene (HH) is one of the most cost-effective and simplest ways to reduce healthcare associated infections (HAIs). Incorporating Speak Up for hand hygiene enables healthcare workers (HCW) to communicate without fear when they observe noncompliance with HH requirements.
Objective: To increase HH compliance by utilizing Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) TeamSTEPPS education to encourage Speak Up for HH and lead to reduction in HAIs.
Methods: The researcher provided educational training on “Speak Up for Hand Hygiene” and performed regular audits to examine its effects on one hospital unit in a California Bay Area healthcare system. A …

An Evaluation Of A Structural Competency Training For School Nurses, Rachel J. Torres

Doctoral Projects

The aim of this quality improvement project was to use structural competency as a tool to highlight the broad social, political, and economic structures that influence health and subsequent inequities and disparities. A one group, pre-and post-design quality improvement project was used to determine whether the Structural Competency Working Group curriculum influenced school nurses’ thought processes regarding the factors that influence health outcomes. The curriculum was adapted to a 1.5-hour training and delivered to a group of school nurses from a highly populated and socially, economically, and culturally diverse urban county in northern California. The results showed that after the …

Evaluation Of A Care Management Program On Family Caregivers Of Persons With Dementia, Victoria L. Jackson

Doctoral Projects

Dementia due to Alzheimer’s and other disease is a growing concern for healthcare providers as the number of individuals in the U.S. population ages. Persons with dementia (PWDs) rely on caregivers, primarily family caregivers (FCGs), for basic and instrumental activities of daily living as the disease progresses. There may be negative outcomes, such as depression, strain, and distress for FCGs of PWDs. Routine assessment and intervention by healthcare providers can address needs of FCGs of PWDs. There are multiple interventions that have demonstrated effectiveness in caring for PWDs and FCGs; one such intervention is care management. The University of California, …