Date of Conferral

11-14-2025

Date of Award

November 2025

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Dr Jill Walsh

Abstract

I designed this Doctor of Nursing Practice staff education project to enhance the ability of primary care nurses at a mental health outpatient clinic to manage depression in patients who are non-compliant with treatment. Currently, nurses lack structured training in recognizing and addressing depression, which contributes to inconsistent care, increased relapse and readmission rates, lower patient satisfaction, and greater healthcare utilization. This project aimed to provide evidence-based education to close a critical gap in practice that affects care quality, continuity, nurse confidence, and patient outcomes. The guiding practice-focused question was: In primary care nurses at a mental health outpatient clinic, how does implementing an evidence-based staff education program, compared to no targeted education, affect nurse knowledge, confidence, and ability to promote treatment adherence in patients with depression? I used a pretest–posttest design to evaluate staff knowledge. I used descriptive statistics and the normalized knowledge gain metric to analyze the data. The average cohort normalized knowledge gain was 0.56. This indicates a strong overall improvement across participants, suggesting the intervention was quite effective. Recommendations include ongoing staff training, strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration, integrating depression management into new nurse orientation, and regularly updating educational materials to reflect current evidence-based practices. This project underscores the effectiveness of targeted nurse education in improving mental health care delivery and promoting equitable outcomes. It supports positive social change by reducing stigma, enhancing culturally sensitive communication, and expanding access to care for diverse populations.

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