Date of Conferral

11-12-2025

Date of Award

November 2025

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Dr. Sue Bell

Abstract

A knowledge deficit in integrating supportive psychotherapy with medication management to treat patients’ psychiatric challenges was identified in a primary care clinical setting. I developed a staff education project to close the knowledge gaps of nurses and nurse practitioners related to an evidence-based protocol that incorporated supportive therapy in individualized treatment plans. The project’s aim was to develop, implement, and evaluate the staff education program. The focused project question centered on whether staff education would increase staff knowledge and drive increased supportive therapy orders at admission of patients. Clinical staff registered nurses and nurse practitioners (N = 5) participated in the education session and completed pre- and posttest questionnaires and an evaluation survey. I analyzed the collected data from the questionnaires and survey using descriptive statistics and percentage knowledge gain calculations. The results demonstrated that average staff knowledge increased 25%, reflecting an increase in the average score of 7.2 correct answers on the pretest to 8.2 on the posttest. After the education, 80% of the participants reported on the evaluation survey that they felt comfortable integrating psychiatric treatment protocols into the initial care of their patients. Staff education on best practices for integrative psychotherapy and medication management increased participants’ knowledge to deliver a combination of psychotherapy and medication treatment to psychiatric patients, including children. The project may lead to community social change by improving management of patients’ mental health issues, promoting optimal outcomes, and lowering overall community healthcare costs .

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