Date of Conferral

2016

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Rose Varner-Gaskins

Abstract

Depression negatively impacts the American economy, and there is a shortage of physicians to provide treatment. Nurse practitioners are viable alternatives to provide high-quality treatment of depression. The project's purpose was to describe nurse practitioners' attitudes toward nonpharmacological interventions to treat clinical depression. Attitude theory provided the theoretical framework. The American Psychiatric Association's guidelines for treating major depression provided the conceptual framework. The project used a quantitative nonexperimental descriptive survey research design. A purposeful sample of 63 nurse practitioners was obtained from members of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Data were collected through an online survey that included questions about participant demographics, attitudes about depression treatment modalities, and experience with individual and group psychotherapy in the treatment of depression. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for demographic information and information related to the use of individual and group therapy. Means and standard deviations were calculated for each of the Likert scale items. The findings showed that participants had more knowledge about medications used to treat depression and individual therapy than they did about group therapy. Findings showed that the participants believed that medication combined with individual therapy was the most effective treatment for individuals diagnosed with depression. Barriers to using group therapy were identified. These findings provided information to nurse practitioners about preferred treatment modalities for depression and the barriers to using group therapy to treat depression.

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