Date of Conferral
2-13-2025
Degree
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
School
Nursing
Advisor
Melissa Rouse
Abstract
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States and disproportionately affects the African American population with a higher incidence and mortality rate. This DNP project was implemented in a suburban primary care practice which is part of a large metropolitan health care organization. I implemented staff education about the CRC completion disparity with the African American population and communication strategies found to help improve this. My goal was for the primary care practice staff to increase their knowledge and change their practice behavior with recommending CRC screening to improve CRC screening rates amongst their African American patients. The staff education training was completed by initiating a pretest, an educational presentation, and a pocket guide as a teaching tool, followed by a posttest 1 day later. There were five participants. There was an average increase in provider knowledge from 70% on the pretest to 78% on the posttest. There was also a self-reported average increase in the willingness to prioritize ordering CRC screening, from 66% on the pretest to 100% on the posttest 1 day later. Implementing a staff education project increased the provider’s knowledge and showed a provider’s willingness to improve routine CRC ordering behavior. The project positively impacts social change by transforming providers thoughts on the health disparity of CRC in the African American population, improving the providers ordering behavior of CRC screening, and benefiting the African American population by increasing CRC screening rates, thus potentially decreasing the morality rate of CRC.
Recommended Citation
McCoy, Sloan, "Increasing Colorectal Cancer Screening Completion Rate Among African American Patients by Staff Education" (2025). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 17310.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/17310
