Date of Conferral
2023
Degree
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
School
Nursing
Advisor
Lilo Fink
Abstract
Opioid abuse is a serious national health crisis resulting in overdose and increased mortality in chronic pain patients. The purpose of this evidenced-based, quality improvement (QI) project was to improve primary care provider’s (PCP) awareness of The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) opioid prescribing guidelines to reduce opioid prescribing at this project site. The Donabedian model of structure, process, and outcome was used as the framework for this QI project. Lewin’s change management model of unfreezing and freezing was used as a guide to implement organization change by creating problem awareness, seeking alternative methods, and integrating the new project training into practice. The practice-focused question supported the evidence that using a standardized checklist could reduce the number of opioids prescribed by PCPs. The second question explored if using the CDC checklist would reduce the number of opioids prescribed by PCPs in this primary care setting during a 12-week project period. The PCPs were trained using the CDC opioid prescribing guidelines during a half day training. Demographic surveys and pre- and post intervention surveys were used to collect data from six PCPs. Data from pretraining survey was compared to the post training survey questions using a paired sample t test done in Microsoft excel. Over a 12-week period, there was a 1.3% reduction in chronic pain patients on opioids. The decrease in opioid prescribing may make a positive social change by potentially reducing the incidence of overdose and death in chronic pain patients.
Recommended Citation
Peters, Christina Marie, "Reducing Opioid Prescribing by using the Center for Disease Control Guidelines" (2023). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 11812.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/11812
