Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Final Projects

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.

Cancer survivorship has been identified as separate stage in cancer treatment posing unique issues that arise from the diagnosis of cancer, as well as late effects associated with treatments. Evidence shows that cancer survivors demonstrate suboptimal follow-up care, and report high levels of unmet needs related to their cancer experience. To improve care for the increasing number of cancer survivors in the United States, survivorship care plans (SCPs) have been proposed as way to strengthen care coordination and improve patient outcomes.

Research suggests that SCPs have favorable impact on patient satisfaction and quality of life, however little research to date investigates the utility of SCPs in improving patient outcomes, adherence to follow-up recommendations, or patients’ confidence in self-care management. To further understand the role of SCPs in survivorship care, a pilot implementation of SCPs in colon cancer patients was implemented to gather data on the identified gaps.

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to examine if a relationship existed between the changes in attitude and knowledge of a mental health care provider, before and after an educational intervention was given on how to identify sex trafficking victims.

Background: According to the National Trafficking Hotline (2017), last year there were over 5,000 cases of sex trafficking reported. Lederer & Wetzel (2014) discuss that more than 88% of victims interact with a health care provider while being trafficked at least once. A majority of cases, mental health care providers were informed that their patient was a sex trafficking victim through collaboration of other services. Without this collaboration, many providers would have never
known that they had interacted with a victim (Domoney, Howard, Abas, Broadben, & Oram, 2015).

Methods: The participant population consisted of psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners and psychologists working in acute and out patient settings.
A pre survey was given to identify the participant’s knowledge of sex trafficking and their awareness of available resources and tools to help screen as well as treat victims of sex trafficking. After completion, the participants viewed an educational voice over presentation that educated them on how to identify current sex trafficking victims, what screening tools are available, the mental health risk factors and how to protect both the victim and provider from potential danger from the alleged trafficker. A post survey was then given to assess their knowledge after the presentation intervention, how much they retained and their confidence in being able to assess and treat sex trafficking victims. All surveys and the presentation were available online for participant convenience via a private link.

Results: The knowledge posttest score was higher than the pretest (Z=-2.694, p<0.007).
The confidence score on treating sex trafficking victims was higher posttest (Z=-2.251, p<0.024) No significant change in attitudes for advocating for sex trafficking victim care. All providers agreed that this high-risk vulnerable population needs advocates (Z=4.67, p<0.707).

Conclusion: All providers agreed for the need to advocate for victim care prior to the educational intervention. The results suggest that mental health providers are more knowledgeable posttest about risk factors, have a higher level of confidence in treating sex trafficking victims and have a higher confidence in their ability to protect victims and provide adequate care.