Date of Conferral

2023

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Joan Moon

Abstract

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Healthy People 2020 breastfeeding goal immediately after birth of 81.9% was surpassed in 2016, with approximately 83.8% of babies breastfed shortly after delivery. However, by seven days post birth, this number decreased to 82.9%, reduced even more for infants who were exclusively breastfed to 64.7%. Local research has shown that breastfeeding decreases at one week after discharge, which may be due, in part, to the lack of nurses' knowledge related to breastfeeding. This lack of knowledge related to breastfeeding by the nurses, in turn, may negatively impact the support staff nurses are able to give to new mothers. The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing practice project was to plan, implement, and evaluate a staff education program on breastfeeding for five perinatal nurses on the unit for which the project was intended. One participant completed the evaluation of the program, stating that all 17 curriculum objectives were met. All participants demonstrated a change in knowledge from pretest to posttest. Using descriptive statistics, the mean score of Part 1 of the pretest was 7.8 and Part 2 of the pretest was 4.8. Part 1 of the posttest resulted in a mean score of 8.2, and Part 2 of the posttest was 8.6. The increase in change of knowledge ranged from 5% to 57%, indicating a positive change in knowledge from pretest to posttest among the participants. The intended project supports the idea of positive social change by enhancing the knowledge of nurses through educational curriculum, thus improving the well-being of the breastfeeding mother and enriching the nutrition of the newborn.

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