Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Access Control

Open Access

Degree Program

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Degree Track

Public Health Nurse Leader

Year Degree Awarded

2015

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/7092290

Month Degree Awarded

May

Keywords

Lyme disease, tick borne illness

Advisor

Karen Kalmakis

DNP Project Chair

Karen Kalmakis

DNP Project Member Name

Emma Dundon

DNP Project Outside Member Name

Deirdre Arvidson

Abstract

Diagnoses of Lyme disease (LD) in Massachusetts have been on the rise in recent years, with one of the highest incidence rates in young school-age children. LD diagnoses may impact the short and long term health of children, as well as their economic, educational, and social well-being. Review of the literature indicates that educational interventions on LD have effectively increased preventative knowledge of LD in children and their parents. These educational interventions include instruction regarding protective practices such as tick checks, wearing protective clothing, and use of repellants, as well as tick ecology education. The purpose of the educational intervention described in this paper, was to prevent infection of LD by increasing knowledge of the disease, including preventive measures, among young children and their parents. The educational intervention involved teaching LD prevention to children in the classroom, and teaching parents through educational packets. The LD program was evaluated using a pre-test post-test program evaluation design. The theoretical framework chosen to support this educational intervention was the Health Belief Model. Results of the program were that the educational intervention for children regarding tick ecology and protective practices, increased preventative knowledge of LD in children as young as five.

Creative Commons License

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

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