Browsing by Subject "interdisciplinary education"

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    Determining the Needs for Pediatric Diabetes Education among Nurses
    (2024-04-26) Ray, Lauren; Delecaris, Angela
    INTRODUCTION: Inpatient management of children and adolescents with diabetes requires a cohesive multidisciplinary team confident in the needs of patients requiring insulin. Previous studies have reported diabetes-related knowledge deficiency in adult-medicine nurses, however there is limited literature in pediatric nurses. Other researchers have trialed various diabetes education (DiabEd) programs in small cohorts and encountered barriers with study retention. At our hospital, pediatric patients with diabetes are often, but not always, admitted to a specific unit (8 East, 8E), which may lead to unequal experience in nurses caring for these children on other units. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to measure the previous experience, training, comfort, and knowledge of pediatric nurses related to insulin and diabetes care. We also sought to understand the distribution of patients with insulin needs across units of the hospital. METHODS: A needs assessment was conducted with surveys to nursing representatives, review of diabetes resources available on each unit, and data surrounding insulin usage and incident reports pertaining to diabetes or insulin. Surveys consisted of six questions regarding current DiabEd provided for nurses and interest in further DiabEd. A pretest consisted of 2 validated tools: a modified Diabetes Self-Report Tool (mDSRT) and modified Diabetes Knowledge Test 2 (mDKT2). The mDSRT used a 4-point Likert scale for 10 items covering confidence in aspects of inpatient diabetes care, with higher scores reflecting higher confidence. The mDKT2 consisted of 15 multiple choice questions. RESULTS: Of 8 non-acute care units (nonACUs) evaluated, 25% had standard diabetes-specific training for new nurses and none had ongoing education after orientation. Seven units expressed the desire for additional DiabEd. Unit resources were out-of-date and 63% of nonACUs lacked any physical resources. Although nonACUs outside of 8E were responsible for only 16% of insulin usage in the hospital over the prior 24 months, they were referenced in 29% of incident reports. Of 47 nurses who completed the pretest, 13 (28%) missed >1 hypoglycemia-related question and 31 (66%) missed >1 ketone-related question. Of all survey responders, 22 (45%) reported receiving no DiabEd in the prior 2 years, 86% of whom had taken care of patients with diabetes in that timeframe. There were no differences in mDKT2 scores between nurses who had received DiabEd within the last 2 years (12.9+/-1.4) and those who had not (12.8+/-1.8, p=0.812). Nurses on 8E scored higher on the mDSRT (3.6+/-0.5, n=5) compared to nurses on other nonACUs (2.9+/-0.5, n=44; p=0.004). There was a positive correlation between mDSRT and mDKT2 scores (p<0.001, r=0.512), representing higher confidence with higher diabetes knowledge scores. CONCLUSION: The needs assessment and pretest data are consistent with previous studies in adult-medicine nurses and support the need for ongoing DiabEd for pediatric nurses. To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate educational needs of nurses related to diabetes care in children and adolescents and to create a curriculum to meet those needs. From these findings, a new DiabEd curriculum was developed and is currently implemented, with posttest data planned.
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    Promoting an Interdisciplinary Approach to Health Management for Patients with an Acute Spinal Cord Injury: A Doctoral Capstone Report
    (2024-04-25) LaVier, Grace; Hull, Kristin; Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health and Human Sciences; Bavender, Clay; Kiser, Ryan
    A spinal cord injury (SCI) can cause permanent impairments impacting quality of life and participation in daily activities. Due to the impact on daily living, occupational therapy is an integral component of the SCI recovery process. Occupational therapy goals focus on improving all aspects of daily task performance for patients with an SCI. Health management is a component of occupational therapy that involves establishing and managing health and wellness routines for increased participation in daily living and meaningful activities. An individual following an SCI may experience limitations and differences in body functions such as bowel and bladder changes which limit that individual’s quality of life if new health management strategies are not adopted. Rehabilitation staff at a level one trauma hospital identified a gap in interdisciplinary knowledge and confidence in health management best practices for patients admitted with an SCI. In an acute care setting, health management goals are shared with other disciplines as physicians guide the care plan and nursing staff carries out the plan including the initiation of new health management strategies. The purpose of this doctoral capstone experiential and project was to increase interdisciplinary knowledge and confidence in best practices for health management when caring for individuals after an SCI. The capstone student disseminated different modes of education to nursing staff on best practices for SCI health management and collected confidence surveys before and after the education interventions. Results of the survey support the effectiveness of the education in increasing overall self-reported confidence and knowledge in each target category.
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    Social Work and Law Interdisciplinary Service Learning: Increasing Future Lawyers’ Interpersonal Skills
    (Taylor and Francis, 2015) Boys, Stephanie K.; Quiring, Stephanie Q.; Harris, Evan; Hagan, Carrie A.; Robert H. McKinney School of Law
    Social workers and attorneys both interact with persons from diverse backgrounds every day, yet although interpersonal skills are an essential focus of social work education, these skills are not addressed in legal education. Interdisciplinary courses in which social workers and lawyers learn interpersonal skills together and have an opportunity to practice them through service learning opportunities are a way to remedy a gap in legal education. The authors describe a project recently piloted at a large midwestern university in which law and graduate social work students participated in an interdisciplinary course with a service learning component requiring students to work together on cases. As one component of the clinic’s assessment, all students were pre- and posttested via an interpersonal skills survey. The law students showed statistically significant improvement in interpersonal skills at the end of the course. The results indicate a need for increased support for interdisciplinary education, specifically partnerships between the professions of law and social work.
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    Social Work Skills Can Fill the Gaps in Legal Education: Law Student Opinions of their Preparation for Practice with Clients
    (2015-01) Boys, Stephanie K.; Quiring, Stephanie Q.; Hagan, Carrie A.; Robert H. McKinley School of Law
    Legal education focuses on case analysis, without instruction on practice with clients. Social workers argue the client, as the consumer of services, is the best source of knowledge when assessing needs. Therefore, the authors conducted a qualitative study of law students, as consumers of services, regarding whether law school prepares them for practice and what additional training they need. The responses indicate that law curricula do not prepare students for practice, and that students desire training in interviewing and human behavior. The respondents were enthusiastically receptive to interdisciplinary instruction. Therefore, the time is ripe for social work and law schools to further explore interdisciplinary collaborations, which will ultimately result in better served clients.