Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Access Control

Campus Access

Degree Program

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Degree Track

Post Master's DNP Completion

Year Degree Awarded

2017

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/10096237

Month Degree Awarded

May

Keywords

Rural, clinic, opioid, overdose, treatment, naloxone

Advisor

Donna Zucker

DNP Project Chair

Donna Zucker

DNP Project Member Name

Kim Dion

Abstract

Background: The opioid epidemic in rural New Hampshire requires immediate intervention. Treatment for overdoses of opioids with naloxone (an opioid antagonist) must be quickly administered to prevent a death in the opioid overdosed patient. Two rural New Hampshire clinics did not stock naloxone in their code carts, nor did they have a clinical protocol guiding pre- and post-resuscitation in the case of overdose. Purpose: This DNP project introduced naloxone into each clinic code cart as well as providing nurses, nurse practitioners and physicians education on administering naloxone intra nasal atomizer along with a clinical protocol for pre-and post-resuscitation to prevent death from an opioid overdose. Methods: Clinic staff members were educated on the use of naloxone pre-and post-resuscitation protocols. An SPSS (version 24) statistical program was used to evaluate changes in clinic staff knowledge pre-and post-education on the care of the opioid overdosed patient. Results: Pre- and post-testing of knowledge of clinic staff demonstrated an increase of knowledge from an average pre-testing score of 72% to post-testing of 100% in the thirty-four of the thirty-five participants (with one participant scoring 81%). Conclusion: This DNP project developed an education program for nurses, nurse practitioners and physicians that clearly improved confidence, knowledge and skills allowing for accurate diagnosis and treatment of the non-medical use of prescription overdosed patients in two New Hampshire rural clinics

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Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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