Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects
Access Control
Open Access
Embargo Period
5-14-2018
Degree Program
Doctor of Nursing Practice
Degree Track
Family Nurse Practioner
Year Degree Awarded
2017
Month Degree Awarded
May
Keywords
Direct, support, profesional, lack, training, disabilities
Advisor
Dr. Annette Wysocki
DNP Project Chair
Dr. Annette Wysocki
DNP Project Member Name
Dr. Annette Wysocki
DNP Project Outside Member Name
N/A
Abstract
The physical and psychological health factors associated with Developmental Disability (DD) puts affected individuals more at risk for being overweight/obese, less likely to receive medical screenings and preventative health care and more likely to develop chronic health conditions than the general population (Krahn, Walker & Correa-De-Araujo, 2015). As such, adults with DD are found to develop chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, and diabetes quicker than their counterparts (Krahn, et al., 2015). Direct support professionals (DSPs), who care for people with DD on a daily basis are expected to manage these illnesses with minimal training. The general requirements for DSPs upon being hired to care for people with DD is usually only based on the possession of a high school diploma, a driver’s license and a clean criminal background check. Therefore, DSPs are not required to be clinicians and to have extensive medical training in order to be able to properly manage illnesses in community settings where nurses and other clinicians do not provide direct care. The purpose of this project is to create a toolkit to help enhance DSPs’ knowledge on six commonly encountered illnesses within group home settings: 1) the common cold, 2) conjunctivitis, 3) aspiration, 4) dehydration, 5) constipation and 6) seizures. The toolkit is comprised of a pre and a posttest (same test) and a PowerPoint slide presentation outlining the sign and symptoms of these six common illnesses/conditions, treatment interventions, and clinicians or health care entities to contact to avoid possible complications. The results from the pre and posttests is computed and analyzed to determine how much DSPs learned from the presentation of the toolkit.
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