Date of Conferral

2023

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Mary T. Verklan

Abstract

Abstract Sexually transmitted infections or diseases (STIs/STDs) acquired through sexual activities lead to compromised sexual health. The adolescent population is at high risk of acquiring STIs/STDs due to their lack of knowledge. The gap in practice was that the nurse practitioners (NPs) were deficient in standard of care; adolescent patients lacked consistent evaluation, education, or documentation of the education in their medical records. The practice-focused question focused on the evaluation of the effectiveness of a quality improvement (QI) initiative that incorporated the use of the American Association for Pediatrics screening and Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) treatment guidelines as well as the NPs use of the Sexual Transmitted Disease Knowledge Questionnaire to educate and treat adolescents about STDs/STIs. The methodology used a before and after design to evaluate the NPs’ compliance with the guidelines to address the practice gap. The framework used to organize the project was the Plan Do Act Study (PDSA) model. Evidence-based information was obtained from the CINAHL, CINAHL plus, EBSCOhost, ProQuest, Medline, and PubMed databases. Other sources of evidence include the CDC.gov, Maryland.gov, Healthy People.gov, and NIH.gov. 100% compliance in the assessment, education, and reporting conducted during the 3 months of prospective with comparison the retrospective data from records showed improved compliance of the NPs standard of practice. Therefore, this DNP QI evaluation project showed a positive practice change, which promotes social change in the adolescent population within the healthcare clinic and the greater community by reducing STDs/STIs.

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