Date of Conferral

2023

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Jennifer Rothamel

Abstract

AbstractThis project sought to enhance the care offered in a local clinic to individuals with an intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals with IDD are faced with the challenges of coping with some social conditions. Mainly waiting for extended periods in a doctor’s office can be challenging. To reduce this population’s waiting time, a staff education program was developed to address this concern. Currently, this local clinic did not have a prescreening exercise that would meet the needs of this population. This DNP project aimed to develop a staff education program for staff in a primary care setting that would include a prescreening questionnaire to be used when the appointment is made to highlight the main concerns for the patient visit and unique patient needs. The practice-focused question addressed what evidence supports knowledge gained using an evaluation of learning objectives in a pre and postsurvey as well as the overall effectiveness of the 1-hour in-person staff education program. The posttest rating showed a change in the rating of learning objectives from pre (M = 3.0) to posteducation (M = 3.6) suggesting an increase in knowledge. Improvement was noted with a 100% (N =5) rating of “strongly agree” that the impact of the training would lead to improvements in the overall functioning of the clinic, time management, and the application of knowledge gained. This DNP staff education program is anticipated to be used by the project partner site to facilitate an improvement in services to benefit patients with IDD. The staff training was based on new interventions and revised procedures that could be implemented to meet the demands of the health sector in serving patients new to the clinic, effecting a positive social change.

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