Award Date

5-1-2022

Degree Type

Doctoral Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing (ND)

Department

Nursing

First Committee Member

Jennifer Pfannes

Second Committee Member

Mary Bondmass

Third Committee Member

Andrew Reyes

Fourth Committee Member

Carlton Craig

Number of Pages

185

Abstract

Psychosocial conditions are prevalent in pediatric oncology patients (Kahalley et al., 2013). Family and social support are essential aspects of a patient's health care outcomes (Merck & McElfresh, 2019). Anxiety and depression are common in pediatric oncology patients due to trauma during treatment (Pao & Kazak, 2015). These patients also can have preexisting developmental or behavioral conditions before starting treatment. Treatment side effects can also cause cognitive and behavioral changes (Nixon, 2014b). Nurses should be knowledgeable and confident in their ability to care for patients' psychosocial health and development. The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project is to develop, implement, and evaluate a sustainable program for pediatric oncology nursing staff to increase their knowledge and confidence of family-centered psychosocial care principles with the intent to improve patient care and reduce patient suffering. This project's intervention was to develop a sustainable program to educate pediatric oncology nurses on family-centered psychosocial care. Measurement of the outcome variables, knowledge and confidence, was done before and after the intervention. Descriptive statistics were used for demographic data, displayed as frequencies and percentages. Data from this project's knowledge and confidence assessments were analyzed using a paired t-test and Wilcoxon signed rank test respectively. Qualitative response questions were pooled and assessed for common themes. Statistical analysis revealed that the intervention was effective at improving nurse knowledge and confidence in psychosocial care of pediatric oncology patients. Additional resources were generated after the intervention based on needs identified in the surveys. The results of this project will be disseminated to national publishing groups in hopes of making it available to nurses across the nation. Keywords: psychosocial, pediatric oncology, anxiety, depression, development

Keywords

Anxiety; Depression; Development; Pediatric Oncology; Psychosocial

Disciplines

Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms | Medical Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences | Nursing

File Format

pdf

File Size

3600 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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