Date of Conferral
1-12-2026
Date of Award
January 2026
Degree
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
School
Nursing
Advisor
Jill Walsh
Abstract
In this Doctor of Nursing (DNP) project, I focused on implementing a staff education program for anxiety screening at a health and wellness clinic. Mental health conditions, particularly anxiety disorders, are common in primary care settings. Research shows that anxiety affects millions of adults, yet many cases remain undiagnosed. The practice problem that I identified was that many patients with anxiety disorders were going undiagnosed during regular clinic visits. The clinic had no standard process for screening anxiety, and staff members had a knowledge deficit on the proper use of anxiety assessment tools. This gap in practice led to missed opportunities for early intervention and treatment of anxiety disorders. The project aimed to improve nursing staff knowledge on using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) screening tool to identify anxiety in adult patients. The practice-focused question was: What is the impact of implementing an evidence-based staff education program to improve staff knowledge to effectively implement changes that affect the use of the GAD-7 screening tool? I used a pretest-posttest design to evaluate the education program’s impact. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the normalized knowledge gain metric, and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The average normalized knowledge gain was 0.37. The Wilcoxon test showed a significant improvement (Z = 2.44, p < .05), supporting the program’s effectiveness. This project demonstrates that evidence-based education can enhance nursing knowledge, improve patient outcomes, and promote equity through standardized mental health screening.
Recommended Citation
CRUMP, WONDA, "Staff Education to Improve Knowledge of Probiotic Use and Benefits for Best Patient Outcomes" (2026). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 19130.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/19130
