Date of Conferral

2020

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Mark Antony Wells

Abstract

AbstractObesity in adolescents is a worldwide epidemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 17% of adolescents in the United States are obese. These statistics put pressure on public health nationally and internationally. Obesity leads to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and arthritis. This doctor of nursing practice project was carried out in a juvenile correctional facility’s clinic, where detainees visited for treatment of acute and chronic health-related issues. Clinicians address detainees’ problems, but a gap was identified in the knowledge of these clinicians. This project focused on closing that knowledge gap by providing a 1-hour educational module to nursing staff to determine if participants’ knowledge of assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and management of obesity in adolescents would be improved. For this project, 20 staff participants answered pretest questionnaires before attending the in-service training. One participant failed to complete the posttest; 19 participants scored M = 100% correct on posttest questions. Analysis found the p value on the paired samples t-test for pretest and posttest was p = 0.00, implying that the pretest followed by a 1-hour education module and posttest significantly improved the staff’s knowledge of how to treat obesity among adolescent youth. This DNP project offers strategies to educate staff to expand their knowledge to facilitate better assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of obesity among youth. The information from the project may enable providers to educate obese adolescent detainees to help them manage their weight to ameliorate the problem of obesity offering an important contribution to positive social change.

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