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.
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Childhood Obesity
- All Subjects: Patient Readmission
Health statistics for physical activity, nutrition, and psychological wellbeing demonstrate the tenuous status of youth in the United States (US). These factors significantly affect growth and development during this critical period and indelibly influence adult health. Consequently, the successful utilization of multicomponent pediatric health promotion programs could improve current and future health, saving billions in health-care costs. The analysis of a literature review on this topic led to the development and completion of an evidence-based project. The project was guided by two conceptual frameworks, Pender’s Health Promotion Model and the Stetler Model for Evidence-based Practice. The project was completed in partnership with a local after-school youth program.
Methodology included a project intervention comprised of a single specialized training session. Data was collected using a pretest-posttest format with repeated measures from a survey adapted from the Organization Readiness to Change Assessment (ORCA) tool. Survey questions focused on participant’s knowledge, skills, attitudes, and use of the selected health promotion program. Descriptive Statistics, the Wilcoxon-Signed Rank Test, and the Friedman Test were completed for data analysis using IBM SPSS v25. Using a critical value p < .1, results from the data indicated improvement in median scores for participant’s knowledge and skills (p-value’s range = .05 - .082). Other changes were not statistically significant (p-value’s range = .135 - .317). The results indicate the project intervention’s efficacy. Future research may focus on optimal training formats, a comparison of repeat sessions versus supplemental web-accessible resources, and program sustainability via refresher sessions and/or designated management.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs accounted for 820 billion dollars in costs related to crime, lost work productivity, and health care services. Nearly 20 million Americans suffer from substance misuse, but only 3.7 million received treatment. Of those who receive treatment, the risk of relapse is high, ranging from 40-60% within a year of treatment. Improvement in the treatment of substance use disorders (SUD) is necessary to improve the health of our society.
Current literature demonstrates that individualized recovery plans and follow-up care are effective in reducing relapse and readmission. Costs to the individual, institution, and healthcare system can be reduced. This project aimed to decrease the risk for relapse and readmission with recovery plan reviews at 72hrs, and two-weeks, post-discharge. The risk of relapse was measured by the Time-To-Relapse questionnaire and the UCLA loneliness scale. The project took place in a residential treatment facility in Phoenix, Arizona. There were five participants initially; two were lost at the two-week follow-up. Pre and post-test results were compared to measure potential predictability of relapse. The two-tailed paired samples t-test was performed to compare the means of the scores but yielded insignificant results.
All participants maintained sobriety. Qualitative data via interview showed positive results demonstrated by statements from the participants. Recovery plan review with follow-up care is a promising evidence-based practice that can be implemented to help individuals maintain sobriety. Additional research is recommended to examine further the impact on the maintenance of sobriety over time.
Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Led Transitional Care Program in an Accountable Care Organization
Background: Hospital readmissions place a heavy financial burden on patients, families, and health care systems. Readmissions can be reduced or prevented by providing a safe transition through care coordination and enhanced communication. Research demonstrates implementation of APRN led home visits (HV) along with telephonic follow-up are cost effective and can be utilized for reducing readmissions among HF patients.
Methods: A program was designed with an ACO and carried out in a family practice clinic with a group of seven HF patients older than 50 years who were at risk of readmission. Interventions included weekly HV with supplemental telephonic calls by the APRN student along with a physician assistant for 12 weeks. Readmission data was collected. QOL and SCB were measured using “Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire” (MLHFQ) and “European Heart Failure Self-Care Behavior Scale” respectively. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Friedman Test.
Outcomes: There were no hospital readmissions at 30 days and the interventions demonstrated a positive effect on QOL, self-care management and satisfaction (χ2 = 30.35, p=.000). The intervention had a large effect on the outcome variables resulting in an increase in QOL and SCB scores post-intervention (ES= -1.4 and -2 respectively).
Conclusions: TCP designed with an ACO, carried out in a primary care setting has a positive effect on reducing hospital readmissions and improving QOL, SCBs, and patient satisfaction among HF patients. TCPs are not revenue generating at outset due to reimbursement issues, however future considerations of a multidisciplinary team approach with convenient workflow may be explored for long-term feasibility and sustainability.
Funding Source: American Association of Colleges of Nursing and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with support of the Academic Partners to Improve Health.
Heart failure (HF) is one of the most common and costly conditions for hospital readmissions in the United States (Conway, 2015). Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs are effective in decreasing hospital readmission rates (Koukoui, Desmoulin, Lairy, Bleinc, Boursiquot, Galinier, & Koukoui, 2015). Medicare has established new requirements for qualification into a CR program; thus, patients are at risk for readmission in the six-weeks post discharge. To reduce HF hospital readmissions and to increase enrollment into the HF program, an infrastructure was implemented beginning in January 2016. This quality improvement project employed a patient chart audit reviewing overall hospital readmission rates for HF at a large hospital in Arizona.
A comparison of readmission rates was made between the 6 months prior to, and the 6-months after the expanded utilization of the HF program. An independent-samples t test was calculated comparing the mean score of the readmission rates before and after a HF CR intervention. No significant difference was found (t(358) = .721, p > .05). The mean of the group before the intervention (m =.15, sd = .36) was not significantly different from mean in the intervention group (m = .13, sd = .33). Implications for practice cannot completely be concluded from this project findings. Continued studies focusing on the enrollment, attendance, and completion of the HF CR program could assist in determining the benefits of referring all patients with the diagnosis of HF to the HF CR program.
Background:
Approximately 1 in 5 U.S. school-aged children are obese. There are many known health complications associated with obesity including premature death. Family-based obesity interventions that promote healthy lifestyle habits are effective at enabling children to make changes needed to avoid long-term health complications associated with obesity. The purpose of this evidence-based practice intervention was to evaluate the effectiveness of a family-based obesity intervention on familial lifestyle behaviors related to nutrition, physical activity, and screen time.
Methods:
Two overweight-obese children (according to CDC criteria) ages 8-12 years old visiting a pediatric primary care clinic in a suburban neighborhood located in the southwest region were recruited to participate in this evidence-based practice intervention based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Familial lifestyle behaviors were assessed using the Family Health Behavior Scale (FHBS) prior to receiving an educational intervention addressing nutritional, physical activity, and screen time recommendations and again after following these recommendation for 6-weeks. Additionally, scheduled follow-up phone calls were made every 3 or 6-weeks addressing any parental questions that surfaced. Data was insufficient for statistical analysis, however, anecdotal recommendations for future implementation of this intervention resulted.
Results:
Of the two patients who participated, pre- and post-intervention data was only attainable from one patient. That patient did have improved scores within each of the 4 FHBS subscales (parent behaviors, physical activity, mealtime routines, and child behaviors). Overall, 11 of the 27 behaviors assessed improved, 12 behaviors resulted in no change, and 4 behaviors worsened. Recommendations related to a more successful implementation of this intervention in the future include improved provider participation (buy-in), utilization of broader inclusion criteria, consideration of the implementation time-frame, and application of the Health Belief Model for addressing existing barriers for each patient prior to implementing the intervention.
Conclusions:
In order to determine the effectiveness of this intervention a larger sample size and completed post-intervention data are needed. The small sample size and lack of post-intervention data inhibits proper data analyzation and significance from being determined.
Hospital readmissions for palliative care patients are costly for patients, families, insurance providers, and palliative care organizations. The evidence shows that integrating virtual visits into palliative care is an innovative way to reduce hospital readmissions, preserve costs, and reduce geographical barriers. The purpose of this article is to evaluate how well transitional care virtual visits reduce future hospital readmissions for palliative care patients when compared to usual care of in-home nurse visits. Palliative care patients from a large palliative company in Arizona, who received a transitional care, post hospital discharge, virtual visit with traditional model care (intervention) were compared to randomly selected traditional model care patients (control).
Data was collected through a retrospective chart review at 30 and 60 days post hospital discharge to evaluate for hospital readmissions and avoided readmissions. The Fishers Exact test was used to compare the results of the two groups to each other. There was no significant difference between the two groups. Virtual visits have an added cost to the agency without decreasing the risk of readmission. Implications for practice are to continue offering transitional care in-home nurse visits. Future research should evaluate if using virtual visits justify the increased costs of use.