Date of Conferral

2-9-2026

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Cara Krulewitch

Abstract

In this doctoral project, I focused on enhancing the adoption of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in healthcare settings, specifically through the implementation of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) mental health screening tools. The practice problem was the ineffective integration of EBPs into clinical workflows, resulting in inefficiencies, staff burden, and missed opportunities for timely mental health interventions. Addressing this gap is crucial to enhancing patient outcomes and optimizing clinical workflows. The practice-focused question for this project was: How does training healthcare staff on the use of PHQ-9 and GAD-7 screening tools, compared to no structured training, impact workflow efficiency and the adoption of EBPs over 3 months? I developed this question to assess whether structured training can enhance staff engagement, improve tool adoption, and streamline clinical processes. I used the promoting action on research implementation in health services (i-PARIHS) framework to guide the implementation of these screening tools. The analytical strategies involve pre- and posttraining surveys to measure staff engagement and adoption rates, along with workflow assessments to track efficiency improvements. Initial findings indicated that structured training substantially improves staff engagement with the tools, with participants’ scores increasing from 65% pretraining to 85% posttraining. Only 45% of the healthcare staff were consistently using the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 pretraining, increasing to 75% posttraining. Similar structured interventions can be applied to other clinical practices, promoting sustainable EBP integration, improved patient care through more timely mental health screening, better staff development, and increased organizational capacity to implement EBPs.

Download

Share

 
COinS