Date of Conferral

2017

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Health Services

Advisor

Rodney Turner

Abstract

Obesity is a national health problem with serious medical, psychological, and economic outcomes. Nurses and nurse practitioners (NPs) are frequently the first point of patient contact and play an essential role in the management of obesity. The current literature noted that practitioners working in primary care settings demonstrate inadequate knowledge related to evidence based practice (EBP) strategies to treat obesity, including diet modification and physical activity. The purpose of this DNP project was to develop and validate an EBP provider educational module related to diet modification and physical activity education for adult patients diagnosed with obesity in a primary care setting. The theoretic frameworks used in this DNP project included the theory of planned behavior, the health belief model, and the plan-to-do-study-act model. Five clinical experts on adult obesity were asked to review the newly developed education module and complete a 4-point Likert scale survey evaluating the module content. Experts were encouraged to provide additional recommendations at the end of the survey. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the survey data and 100% of the experts strongly agreed that the module contained comprehensive content related to adult obesity pathology, patient behavior modification, and the benefits of evidence-based adult diet and physical activity guidelines. Experts also strongly agreed that this project will strengthen provider skills related to history intake, assessment, and physical examination of obese patients. The project promotes positive social change in the primary care setting by improving provider awareness, knowledge, and EBP management guidelines of adult obesity patients.

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