Ket Davis

Graduation Semester and Year

2017

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Department

Nursing

First Advisor

Laird Sandra

Abstract

Background: A large body of literature describes poor compliance among mental health providers with evidence-based practice (EBP) guidelines for Bipolar Disorder (BD) I depression treatment. Poor compliance to EBP guidelines has been linked to unfavorable patient outcomes. Specifically, the use of antidepressants (AD) in the treatment of BD has been linked to flares of mania and hypomania. Despite the ineffectiveness of these drugs, clinicians continue to use them. At one mental health primary care site, a lack of compliance with EBP guidelines for AD use in BD I depression was found. The purpose of this project was to implement a quick reference tool to improve clinicians' compliance to EBP standards regarding use of AD for BD I depression treatment. Methods: A one-group pretest/posttest design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the reference tool implementation. Convenience sampling was used to identify 18 electronic medical records (EMR) from two mental health clinicians, for use of AD in BD treatment. Data was collected on an Excel spreadsheet, and results were analyzed with SPSS 23.0 for Social Scientists, using the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results: A significant difference was found between the pre- and post-EBP compliance scores (Z = -2.326, p = 0.020). AD use was reduced from 94% to 83%. This implies that a quick reference tool may have influenced the level of EBP compliance by mental health providers managing BD. Conclusion: The use of EBP guidelines in the clinical setting was beneficial for implementing the best practices for the management of BD, and promotes improvements in patient care for this population.

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences | Nursing

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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