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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- Creators: Clark-Deuel, Janna
- Creators: Colao, Deirdre
While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, America’s nursing work force continue to work in the most challenging of circumstances. While expected to hold the fort and continue on, deep inside, they bury an unprecedented level of acute stress, anxiety and depression. Peer support groups have been posed as a possible coping behavior. This cross-sectional designed project was developed to assess the worth and feasibility of a virtual peer support group with a focus on healthcare provider wellness during a period of surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overwhelmed staff, technology/documentation changes and challenges, competing clinical demands, short-staffing and Zoom fatigue were identified as the limiting factors for this project’s completion within its given timeframe. These findings informed of current barriers, providing a basis for future program development to mitigate the impact of psychological distress among healthcare providers. Evolving literature on this topic supports recommendations for further study and action by individual health care providers, organizations and at the state and national levels.
Background and Significance: Anxiety is a prevalent health problem affecting up to 30% of the general population. Over 95% of radiation oncology patients report anxiety often related to not knowing what to expect during treatments. The current guideline for management of anxiety is the use of benzodiazepines; which can impose a risk to patients. Evidence demonstrates virtual reality videos can be an effective non-pharmacologic approach to reduce anxiety..
Design: Observational cohort evidence based project.
Setting: Outpatient radiation oncology facility in the Southwest United States.
Sample: 40 patients who have not previously undergone radiation therapy, but have been prescribed radiation treatments for malignant or non malignant conditions.
Methods: Patients who had not previously undergone radiation treatments were identified based on chart review and consented for participation in the project. The patient's were assessed for both their general (trait) anxiety and situational (state) anxiety using The State Trait Anxiety inventory (STAI). They were then shown a virtual reality video that walked them through what they would experience during their radiation treatment. The patient's were re-administered the STAI questionnaire following the video to assess any change in anxiety levels.
Variables: Trait and State anxiety scores before and after the virtual reality video intervention.
Findings/Outcomes: A paired t-test was conducted to assess the data. There was a significant difference in the state anxiety scores pre intervention (m = 32.65, SD = 11.47) and post intervention (M = 25.50, SD 8.95), p =< 0.001.
Conclusions: The use of virtual reality videos was an effective non-pharmacological approach to reduce anxiety in patients receiving radiation treatment.
Implications for nursing: The results provide support for the use of a virtual reality intervention as a non-pharmacologic option to reduce anxiety for patients.