Date of Conferral

2018

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Amelia Nichols

Abstract

Within the 21st century, Type II diabetes has emerged as a public health crisis. African Americans and Hispanic Americans have the highest rates of Type II diabetes and obesity compared to European Americans. The purpose of this DNP project was to teach medical assistants (MA) to provide self-management of diabetes and obesity for the African American population in the local clinical setting. An educational tool kit for health providers was developed to guide the educational project. The chronic care model was used to guide the development of the educational toolkit. A pretest posttest design was incorporated into the educational program. The materials were found to be clear, accurate, and easy to read by the medical assistants. Four MAs, who worked at the clinical setting, participated in the educational program that taught them to use the toolkit developed for this project. To evaluate the effects of the educational program for the MAs, the results of the pre and posttests were scored and showed that MAs had significantly increased their knowledge of teaching diabetes and obesity self-management for African Americans (pretest mean score 80, posttest mean score 93). An implication of this scholarly project is that it will give clinicians the resources needed to create social change in health care by addressing education in diabetes and obesity. Positive social change may result as the African American patients who receive education from medical assistants at the clinical site improve their self-management skills to prevent diabetes and obesity or the complications of the disease.

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