Date of Conferral
8-4-2026
Date of Award
August 2026
Degree
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
School
Nursing
Advisor
Mary Rodgers
Abstract
Depression is a common mental health disorder in the United States that places significant burden on the individual, the community, and the country. It is estimated that 7.8% of adults in the U.S. experienced major depression in 2019. Having a depression diagnosis places the individual at increased risk for suicide by 31%. Therefore, it is important to screen for depression. In a small outpatient mental health clinic, a gap in practice was identified as a lack of depression screening at patient encounters. The question was asked: In the outpatient clinical setting, what is the impact of improved use of the PHQ-9 on depression screening and treatment planning in the clinical setting? Utilizing the PDSA cycle, an organization change process quality improvement project was conducted. Initial clinical data revealed that the PHQ-9 was used 94% of the time on initial screenings and 5% during follow up visits. The identified goal for the PHQ-9 was 100% for initial encounters and 80% for follow up encounters. The organization change process occurred over a 4-week implementation period and was found to be successful with a 100% completion rate at initial visits and 92% completion rate at follow up visits. Subjective data gathered found that the use of the PHQ-9 at each patient encounter was beneficial in identifying undiagnosed and underreported depression symptoms and improved treatment planning and early intervention.
Recommended Citation
Young, Meghan Rey, "Improved Depression Screening in an Outpatient Mental Health Clinic Using the PHQ-9" (2026). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 20508.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/20508
