Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects
Access Control
Campus Access
Embargo Period
4-29-2017
Degree Program
Doctor of Nursing Practice
Degree Track
Post Master's DNP Completion
Year Degree Awarded
2017
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
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.