Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Final Projects

As the incidence of acute and chronic wound conditions rises and wound dressing protocols become more complex, uninsured patients lacking access to specialty wound care are challenged to manage their own wounds. Understanding multistep dressing change protocols may be inhibited by low health literacy. Low health literacy is associated with reduced disease knowledge and self-care. Little evidence of health literacy effects on wound patients is available nor are literacy-sensitive educational interventions that address wound knowledge and self-care. Improved outcomes occur in all health literacy levels in other diseases with the use of literacy-sensitive educational interventions that incorporate more than one literacy strategy over multiple sessions. To examine the effectiveness of a literacy-sensitive wound education intervention on wound knowledge and self-care, an evidence-based pilot project was conducted in an urban wound clinic.

A convenience sample of 21 patients received a literacy-sensitive wound education intervention consisting of spoken and written communication over several sessions. Instruments measured health literacy level, wound knowledge, dressing performance, and wound healing status. There was a significant increase in wound knowledge scores in all literacy groups from baseline to visit two (p < .01) and four (p < .01). Dressing performance scores remained consistently high through visit four in all literacy levels. All participant’s wounds progressed toward wound healing significantly from baseline to visit two (p < .01) and four (p < .01). Incorporation of a literacy-sensitive education intervention with supportive literacy aids over several sessions supports improved wound knowledge and dressing self-care and can affect healing in patients of all health literacy levels.

Type II Diabetes Mellitus has detrimental effects on the human body. A1C levels reflect the attachment of glucose to hemoglobin-the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. Elevated A1C levels are an indicator of how controlled diabetes is. Uncontrolled diabetes not only affects glucose levels, but has detrimental repercussions in other organs of the body, causing peripheral vascular disease, risk of developing dementia, periodontal or gum disease, skin infections, neuropathy in lower and upper extremities, renal damage, erectile dysfunction, decreased blood flow, and cardiac conditions among others.

A diet low in calories positively affects glucose levels in the body. Type II Diabetes can be easily controlled when lifestyle modifications are included in the plan of care. Among those modifications, diet is an effective intervention for the management of this condition.
Establishing a diet among the patients that have an elevated A1C is the plan of care and ultimate goal for this project. The Mediterranean diet has demonstrated decreased blood glucose levels, improved weight control and enhanced quality of life.

There is an increasing number of cancer patients outliving their diagnosis and treatment and requiring more support as they transition to cancer survivors. To bridge this gap, survivorship care plans should be provided to all cancer survivors to provide post treatment plans of care, recommendations, and resources (Commission on Cancer, 2016). A quality improvement project was implemented in the urology practice of a National Cancer Institute-designated, academic hospital in Phoenix, Arizona to provide survivorship care plans to prostate cancer patients with surgical intervention as their cancer treatment.

Through interprofessional collaboration, the process change was designed and implemented with the residents and Physician Assistants of the urology practice. There was a 93% adherence rate in delivering the survivorship care plans during the project. The “Confidence in Survivorship Information” questionnaire was used to measure the patients’ confidence in survivorship information prior to and after receiving a survivorship care plan. A paired t-test showed statistical significance in improvement in confidence in the knowledge of long-term physical effects of cancer treatment, strategies for preventing and treating long-term physical effects, and resources available for family members who may be at risk. The project will continue in order to meet requirements for cancer programs established by the Commission on Cancer (Commission on Cancer, 2016).