THE IMPACT OF AN ONLINE EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION FOR NON-VA CIVILIAN NURSE PRACTITIONERS: A MEASURE OF COMFORT IN CARING FOR VETERANS

1 online resource (62 pages) : PDF

2017

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Background: There is a nationwide focus on increasing awareness about veterans’ unique healthcare needs. The CHOICE Act allows eligible veterans to receive care from community healthcare providers; however, literature on effective methods to prepare non-VA civilian nurse practitioners (NPs) to care for veterans is lacking.Purpose: To develop an online educational intervention for non-VA civilian NPs and conduct a pilot study to evaluate its impact on comfort level in caring for this veterans. Methods: An online educational module was developed and a 10-item tool was used to assess comfort level before and after completing the module. A link to the online pilot study was emailed to 250 NPs in North Carolina and data was collected over 4 weeks. Results: A total of 11 non-VA civilian NPs participated. Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to detect statistically significant changes. Mean scores for all 5 items measuring comfort level improved, with 3 reaching statistical significance: comfort level for discussing hazardous exposures (p = .038) and understanding and treating TBI (p = .046) and PTSD (p = .014). In addition, overall comfort level improved (p = 0.018). Conclusion: Pilot study findings indicated the online educational module did improve non-VA civilian NPs’ comfort level when caring for veterans. Results also indicated non-VA civilian NPs desire for education on caring for veterans and pretest scores showed low levels of comfort and familiarity for veteran-specific care. Continued research on preparing non-VA civilian NPs to care for veterans is essential.

doctoral dissertations

Nursing

D.N.P.

Comfort Level
Education
Non-VA Nurse Practitioner
Pilot Study
Veterans Healthcare
Veteran Unique Needs

Health Services Research

Powers, Kelly

Whitaker-Brown, Charlene
Smith, Valeria
Demakis, George

Thesis (D.N.P.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2017.

This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). For additional information, see http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/.

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Pettus_uncc_0694D_11335