Date of Award

2023

Degree Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Leadership and Advanced Nursing Practice

Committee Chair

Dr. Lisa Morgan

Committee Chair School

Leadership and Advanced Nursing Practice

Committee Member 2

Dr. Lakenya Forthner

Committee Member 2 School

Leadership and Advanced Nursing Practice

Abstract

Antibiotics are a powerful and useful tool prescribed by healthcare providers to treat bacterial infections in patients. However, when antibiotics are unnecessarily prescribed or improperly consumed or not consumed by patients, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) can ensue. Antibiotic resistance (ABR) is an urgent public health threat and is, unfortunately, the root cause of many deaths in the United States every year. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in the United States, more than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occur each year, and more than 35,000 people die as a result (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2022a). Even further, when infections by Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) are combined with the results, the infection rate by antimicrobial resistant infections rises to three million infections with 48,000 deaths. The statistics are staggering, and without proper intervention and education to the general public, along to providers, the numbers will steadily increase. Not only will the issue be a public health threat, but instead, it will become a public health emergency.

The DNP project is aimed at utilizing patient education to combat antibiotic resistance in the rural community. Adult patients ages 18-65 will be assessed by the healthcare provider and doctoral student for the need of an antibiotic prescription during the clinic visit. After the appropriate antibiotic is chosen, a pre-questionnaire will be administered to determine the patient’s baseline knowledge on antibiotics. Then, the doctoral student will provide the patient with verbal education and two handouts he or she can take home from the clinic. Questions will be appropriately answered by the doctoral student, and then, a post-questionnaire will be conducted to determine if the education provided was successful and beneficial. The identity of the participants will be kept confidential, and the questionnaires will be conducted anonymously. The over-arching goal of the DNP project is to examine at least a 50% increase in post-education questionnaire scores, along with 50% of participants stating the education provided was both effective and beneficial.

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