Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects
Access Control
Open Access
Degree Program
Doctor of Nursing Practice
Degree Track
Post Master's DNP Completion
Year Degree Awarded
2021
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/22652198
Month Degree Awarded
May
Keywords
Expedited partner therapy, sexually transmitted infections, chlamydia, treatment
Advisor
Ann Becker DNP, RN
DNP Project Outside Member Name
Vida Kwofie DNP, FNP, RN
Abstract
Abstract
Background: In the past six years, there has been a steady rise in the number of reported cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea in the United States. Expedited partner therapy (EPT) refers to the practice of treating partners of patients diagnosed with specific treatable sexually transmitted infections without first evaluating them. This treatment was recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2006 and it is currently legalized in 45 states and the District of Columbia. However, many health care providers (HCPs) do not have knowledge of EPT therefore do not make use of it.
Purpose: This quality improvement (QI) project provided education on expedited partner therapy to providers at a community health center in Maryland. The goal was to increase awareness and knowledge of expedited partner therapy, and the intention to utilize EPT to improve its use.
Methods: Recruitment of the participants involved providing an overview of the project during staff meetings followed by sending emails to the clinicians. Pre and post intervention surveys were sent to clinicians via SurveyMonkey for data collection. The education intervention was through PowerPoint.
Results: Using the Wilcoxon signed rank test, the intervention resulted in statistically significant results when current EPT use was compared to future plan to use EPT. Results for most of the other variables were not statistically significant.
Conclusion: Increase knowledge and awareness of EPT can result in improved use. However, the outcome for most variables were not statistically significant, but future projects or studies could use larger samples to determine significance of the other variables.
Keywords: Expedited partner therapy, sexually transmitted infections, chlamydia, treatment
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