Date of Paper/Work

5-2022

Type of Paper/Work

Doctor of Nursing Practice Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Department

Nursing

First Advisor

Kara Koschmann

Department/School

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Abstract

The need for pediatric mental health care is rising as more children are diagnosed with mental health conditions. Care coordination is an essential part of caring for these children as it reduces unnecessary health care visits and increases families’ satisfaction with care. Care coordination also has the potential to support providers. This project took place at a pediatric mental health care clinic, which did not have a care coordinator. Key stakeholders at the clinic identified a lack of a care coordinator, adequate time, and resources as barriers to providing the most coordinated care to their patients. Based on need, this quality improvement project aimed to create and implement a care coordinator role to support NPs at the project site. The project's goals were to provide care coordination to 20 families, increase NPs’ ability to support their patients, increase NP work satisfaction, and decrease NP work stress. The quality improvement method for the project was the Focus, Assess, Develop, Execute/Evaluation model fused with the Community Engagement: Leveraging Resources to Improve Health Outcomes theory. In total, 13 families received care coordination services and the care coordinator completed 75 interventions. The pre-and post-intervention surveys showed a 1.3-point decrease in mean NP stress scores, a one-point increase in ability to support patients. Quantitatively there was no change in work satisfaction. However, qualitatively, NPs reported increased their work satisfaction. This project positively impacted NPs at the project site and has the potential to affect a larger population through creation of an online care coordination resource for providers and families and sharing the implementation of this project with additional clinics.

Available for download on Saturday, July 27, 2024

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