Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Final Projects
The Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Projects collection contains the completed works of students from the DNP Program at Arizona State University's College of Nursing and Health Innovation. These projects are the culminating product of the curricula and demonstrate clinical scholarship.
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- All Subjects: Residential Treatment
The birth of a new baby is known to be a joyful time for families. However, such a treasured experience can quickly reroute in a matter of moments which leaves the family feeling helpless, frightened, and guilty. The innate process of bonding and attachment is interrupted by the resuscitative course following a traumatic birth. Separation, grief, anger, and fear promote what’s being deemed more and more frequently as parental posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Rates of parental PTSD associated with separation at birth are equivalating those of post-partum depression and post-partum psychosis. Emotionally unstable parents are unable to adequately care for their newborn for both short and long term needs.
Facilitation and support of the parental role in an altered environment, such as a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), is thought to create opportunities for relationship security. Establishment of an emotionally invested caregiver has been proven to minimize sequelae of the NICU patient, reduce length of stay, cut readmission rates, and lower the incidence of failure to thrive post-discharge. A parental psychosocial program was instituted in a 32-bed NICU within a southwest children’s hospital. The program efficacy was analyzed several months after implementation. Results are concurrent with the thought that individual counseling for NICU families reduces stress scores and improves patient satisfaction at discharge.
The chronic nature of substance use disorder requires continuity of care after residential treatment. Only a small proportion of patients, however, adhere to aftercare follow-up plans and the relapse rates remain between 40- 80% within a year post-discharge. Synthesis of evidence showed that facilitated referral (FR) significantly increased follow- up adherence and resulted to positive outcomes. The study aimed to examine the effectiveness of FR in improving access, follow-up adherence and engagement to aftercare services, and relapse rate after a month post- discharge.
After the Institutional Review Board approval, 30 participants were recruited in two residential treatment facilities. Questionnaires, the Assessment of Warning Signs of Relapse and Health leads surveys were utilized to collect data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, McNemar, and Wilcoxon signed rank tests. Results showed that FR significantly increased access to many community aftercare services (p<.05). A significant reduction in relapse risk post-intervention was also noted (Z= -3.180, p= .001). Additionally, most participants discharged with scheduled appointments followed-up and had continued engagement with aftercare services. Eight participants maintained sobriety and 18 were lost to follow-up a month post-discharge, while four relapsed in the facility.
Overall, FR increased access to needed aftercare services and significantly decreased the relapse percentage risk post-discharge. FR is a promising intervention that can be implemented for practice. Future research is recommended to further examine the correlation with follow-up adherence and continuous engagement to aftercare services, and relapse rate at 30 days after discharge.
Design: The primary hypothesis was that active participation as defined by contact with a sponsor of an hour or more per week, as measured by the impact on affective characteristics correlated with increased levels of sobriety, when measured by the AWARE questionnaire (Advance Warning of Relapse) within 7 days of entry and prior to discharge (within 30 days). Setting: The project took place in a residential treatment facility in Phoenix, Arizona.
Participants: There were 12 clients from a men’s house and 12 clients from a woman’s house, all of which were going through recovery. Intervention: The educational session explained what a sponsor is and the importance of finding one early as a key role in relapse prevention.
Measurements: Pre and post-test results were compared to see if there was an impact on the predictability of relapse and sponsorship. The paired t-test was performed to compare the two means of AWARE scores. A lower score on the AWARE questionnaire indicates a person is more likely to succeed in sobriety.
Findings: Based on 24 samples collected, the mean scores within the first seven days were 91.17 with a standard deviation of 18.59 and the mean score prior to discharge were 72.78 with a standard deviation (SD) of 20.02. The mean difference between the two scores was 18.39 (SD=2.84). There was a significant effect of the relapse prevention program which included sponsorship, t (22) = 4.79, p < 0.001.
Conclusion: Implications for practice include increased time with sponsors to reduce rates of relapse. Future concerns include good fit matching which may reduce rates of relapse even further.
Background and Significance: NIRS data can be used in conjunction with standard vital sign monitoring to help clinicians understand blood flow and metabolic demands of organ systems, particularly cerebral, renal, and mesenteric blood flow patterns. A NICU unit in the northwestern US adopted NIRS use on their patients in 2008, however, NIRS monitoring usage decreased over the past 5 years, citing a lack of continued education and comfort interpreting and managing NIRS monitored patients. One patient was monitored with NIRS in the year prior to the QI project.
Methods: A 5 point Likert-Type survey was designed to examine provider comfort and confidence using and interpreting NIRS on NICU patients. No Croanbach’s alpha value exists for the survey as it was purposefully designed for the QI project. An educational presentation on the use and interpretation of NIRS on NICU patients was created and delivered during a formal provider staff meeting. Pre and Post education surveys were distributed electronically to participants and were presented 1 week prior to educational session and 1 month after educational session. IBM SPSS version 23 was used for descriptive statistics, paired t tests, and Wilcoxon test. Significance set to p<0.05.
Results: In total, 18 providers (N=18) were surveyed, and 13 paired survey results (n=13) were received (8 MD and 5 NNP). Paired-samples t tests were calculated to compare the mean total score (TS) for pre/post comfort and pre/post confidence. This was a significant improvement for both comfort (t(11) = -3.13, p=0.010) and confidence (t(11) = -3.37, p=0.006). Wilcoxon test showed a significant increase in the times a provider managed a patient with NIRS (z=-2.762, p=0.006). The number NIRS monitored patients increased from one in the previous year to 15 patients in the 5 months of data tracking, a clinically significant increase.
Conclusions: Providing educational session on previously utilized clinical applications can improve providers comfort and confidence and influence their usage in clinical practice. Future continuing education sessions could be designed for different clinical applications in order to keep clinicians abreast of the current evidenced based applications of advanced clinical monitors.
Opioid overdose is now the leading cause of unintentional injury related mortality in the U.S. with two people dying each day as a result of opioid overdose in Arizona. Among patients treated for opioid use disorder, chronic pain is frequently cited as the reason for opioid use. Treatment of chronic pain with long-term use of opioids is linked to increased medication tolerance, worsened pain sensitivity, and psychological symptoms. Acceptance of chronic pain is the individual’s ability to be willing to endure pain and their ability and willingness to participate in activities despite experiencing chronic pain. Increased acceptance of chronic pain has been shown to lower pain intensity, promote recovery of individuals’ emotional and physical abilities, and lessen use of pain medication including opioids.
Purpose: The purpose of this evidence-based practice project was to examine the feasibility of using acceptance of chronic pain, pain severity, and pain interference as measures to evaluate the effectiveness of a multimodal residential treatment program for opioid abuse.
Methods: Two surveys, the CPAQ and BPI were administered shortly after admission (T1) and after 21-25 days (T2) to evaluate project feasibility.
Results: Six participants were enrolled. Three participants completed T1 and T2 surveys. Three participants were lost to follow-up. Mean scores for Chronic Pain Acceptance were T1 = 79 (SD = 17.0) and T2 = 78.67 (SD = 5.0). All surveys were easy to administer and participants answered all questions.
Conclusion: Chronic pain acceptance may be a feasible and meaningful measure with which to evaluate residential treatment programs. Further research is needed to evaluate acceptance of chronic pain with long-term opioid abstinence and overdose deaths.